Cabaret in South Africa

See also the musical play Cabaret

= Origins =

A form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue—a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance being introduced by a master of ceremonies or emcee (MC).

Cabaret also refers to a Mediterranean-style brothel and bar with tables; where women mingle with and entertain the clientele. Traditionally these establishments can also feature some form of stage entertainment, often singers and dancers.

Particularly influential in adapting the cabaret form to 20th centrury political theatre have been Parisian cabaret, Dutch cabaret, German cabaret and Polish cabaret.

Kabaret in Afrikaans
Kabaret is the Afrikaans word for Cabaret.

Kabaret and cultural resistance
The notion of using variety concerts or cabarets as a form of resistance dates from the 19th century (eg.) and also from the early Afrikaner nationalist period; i.e. from the Boer War (e.g. ), the Rebellion (e.g ) and the 2nd World War (see for example Die Katdorings) However, while it is often used in the general sense discussed above, it also gained a more specific meaning in the Cape and the country during the 1970-1980 period. At the incentive of Hennie Aucamp it developed as a form of resistance theatre utilized by Afrikaans writers and performers, rooted in the political cabaret of the Weimar period, strongly inlfuenced by the work of Bertolt Brecht. ***