!!!Kabarett

Kabarett (cabaret and revue) derived from the French cabaret: small 
restaurant, partitioned dish; in Austria, Kabarett refers to small 
theatres and special types of theatrical production consisting 
typically of a loosely connected mixture of sketches, songs and 
parodies, etc., introduced by an entertainer in what are called 
"conferences" presenting a satirical portrayal of political and social 
life.

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The first revue theatre in Vienna was the "Nachtlicht" (later called 
the "Fledermaus"), founded by M. Delvard and M. Henry in 1906. (first 
revue theatre in Paris in 1881, in Berlin in 1901). In 1912 the revue 
theatre "Simplicissimus" was founded (later called  "Simpl"). The 
Simpl was made famous by such outstanding entertainers as F.  
Gruenbaum and K.  Farkas and became a highly popular Viennese 
institution. In those days Austrian cabaret was characterized by a 
witty and light form of entertainment which rarely referred to topical 
political issues, the only exception being the cabaret "Die Hoelle". 
It was not until the 1930s hat political cabaret became popular in 
Vienna. (In 1931 S.  Kadmon founded the cabaret "Lieber  Augustin"; 
other important revue theatres and cabarets of the 1930s were "Die 
Stachelbeeren" (1933-1936), "Literatur am Naschmarkt", "ABC" (1933 
-1938). In 1938 all these cabarets were closed and most of the 
artistes and writers were imprisoned or had to emigrate. In the 
National Socialist era the "Wiener Werkel" was the only revue theatre 
that continued operating illegally up to 1944, with artistes like F.  
Eckhardt and K. Nachmann writing for the Wiener Werkel under a 
pseudonym.

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Austrian postwar cabaret has been characterized by an interesting 
rivalry between the light and entertaining sketches of K. Farkas and 
the political cabarets of a group of revue artistes around G.  Bronner 
and H.  Qualtinger; other famous representatives of this new trend in 
cabaret were M.  Kehlmann, G.  Kreisler, L.  Martini, C.  Merz, P.  
Wehle. From 1961 onwards H. Qualtinger and C. Merz increasingly turned 
their attention to the writing of political satires; the satire "Der 
Herr Karl" is a mordant statement on Austria and its recent history. 
In the 1970s a new generation of revue artistes developed and the old 
forms of political sketches were abandoned and replaced by new ones. 
Cabaret became a form of entertainment in a much broader sense of the 
word, reaching from rock music ("Schmetterlinge") to music hall and 
variety entertainment (T.  Kueppers). The revue artistes no longer 
dealt exclusively with current political affairs but criticized the 
political system in general (L.  Resetarits) or concentrated on 
grotesque and bizarre features of everyday life. (O.  Gruenmandl); 
recently, solo performances by revue artistes have become increasingly 
popular (H.-P.  Heinzl, W.  Schneyder, E.  Steinhauer etc.).

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In the early 1980s several new revue theatres and cabarets developed, 
resulting in a new boom in Austrian cabaret. Young revue artistes (G. 
Kaufmann, I. Stangl, A. Vitasek) went beyond the limits of traditional 
cabaret. Each of them cultivates an individual artistic style of his 
own but they all have one thing in common: they refuse to satirize 
political life and prefer to turn to people and their everyday 
problems (J.  Hader, L. Lukas, Schlabarett, T. Maurer); A recent 
development in Austrian cabaret is that a number of films have been 
made by young Austrian revue artistes. ("Indien" by A.  Dorfer and J. 
Hader, "Muttertag" by Schlabarett).

!Literature
R. Weys, Cabaret und Kabarett in Wien, 1970; H. Veigl, 
Lachen im Keller. Kabarett und Kleinkunst in Wien, 1986; G. Promitzer, 
Das Kabarett im Spiegel einer Dekade 1951-1961, 1991; S. Hausberger, 
Denn nahe, viel naeher, als ihr es begreift. Die literarische 
Kleinkunst der 30er Jahre, master's thesis, Vienna 1992; T. Krpic, 
Politik und Kabarett, master´s, thesis Vienna, 1993.


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