Virtual Show & Discussion
“Glitz & Grit": De/Reconstructing Weimar Glamour

With Le Pustra’s Kabarett der Namenlosen

Mon, 09/14/2020
5:00 PM Zoom

Pull back the curtain on modern Berlin’s most enchanting Weimar Republic inspired theater show, Le Pustra’s Kabarett der Namenlosen (KDN).

We present this programming with a warm thank-you to the Friends of the Goethe-Institut (FoGI), who have generously provided us with financial support to fund our project.

Friends of the Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC (FoGI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established to promote and assist the mission of the Goethe-Institut. Through its support, FoGI enhances the activities of the Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC, and promotes these activities in the region.

“Glitz & Grit": De- and Reconstructing Weimar Glamour with Le Pustra’s Kabarett der Namenlosen

Part I of two-part event series Beyond Babylon: Re-Examining Berlin in the Golden Twenties, presented by the Goethe-Institut Washington

Part II: 

On September 14, the Goethe-Institut Washington invites you to pull back the curtain on Berlin’s most captivating and thought-provoking Weimar Republic inspired theater show, Le Pustra’s Kabarett der Namenlosen [content advisory: brief nudity].

Meet some of the numerous multi-talented artists who make up the cast and artistic team, which creates a theatrical experience that interprets the dazzling and dark cabaret scene of Berlin’s Golden Twenties – in particular, one actual Berlin cabaret group of the same name, at whose shows people from all walks of life intermingled, experimented, invented, and challenged social taboos. View special performances and catch a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a truly unique show.

Join us live on Monday, September 14, at 5:00pm EDT, for a Zoom Webinar conversation with Kabarett der Namenlosen's conceptual and artistic director Le Pustra, along with cast members Charly Voodoo, Bridge Markland, and Mama Ulita – the latter of whom is herself no stranger to the Goethe-Institut Washington, as she knocked us out with her performance at Cabaret on K: A Celebration of Nightlife in 1920s Berlin and Modern D.C. in June 2019.

Just over 100 years ago, the first “democracy” in Germany was born in the period between the two World Wars. A colorful and turbulent period in German history, Berlin during the Weimar Republic was a haven for artists, the queer community, expatriates, and misfits of all stripes.

At the same time, Berlin was a lawless, destitute city, where radical politics would ultimately force their way to the forefront and jeopardize the cultural, scientific, and legal advancements made towards a society in which queer people could live without persecution.

Berlin cabaret flourished throughout the 1920s, seizing the Weimar Republic’s lax laws on free speech as an opportunity to freely express satire, sexual entendres, and political stances through performance art. Kabarett der Namenlosen strives to reimagine such a landscape, steeped in the past, yet with a distinctly modern twist.

Kabarett der Namenlosen is co-produced by Else Edelstahl from Berlin's Bohème Sauvage.

Registration is required for this virtual event; registration requires a purchase of a $5 ticket (service fee already included) or donation of >$5 via Eventbrite. All proceeds from Eventbrite ticketing will go the Kabarett der Namenlosen team. We greatly appreciate your support of these very special collaborators, especially as they navigate their work in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Zoom Webinar link will be emailed out through Eventbrite the week of September 7.

This project has been supported by the Friends of the Goethe-Institut (FoGI).
Buy Tickets About the Guests
(pictured above, left to right: Le Pustra, Bridge Markland, Charly Voodoo, and Mama Ulita)

Le Pustra
Le Pustra is a dazzling art figure, actor, and singer with a unique style and point of view. His theatrical vision evokes a decadent dreamlike world of melancholia and sepia-tinted vignettes; inspiring other artists and bohemians alike. He is the art director of Berlin’s all-time sold-out 1920s Weimar Republic inspired show, Le Pustra’s Kabarett der Namenlosen, and guest stars in the award-winning German crime drama Babylon Berlin (Season 3) as mysterious nightclub owner Edwina Morell. Performance highlights include London Fashion Week, Lifeball (Vienna), Berlin Alternative Fashion Week, The Box, Coney Island (NYC), Carnivale Di Venezia (Venice), Perth Fringe Festival (Australia), and many more. He has also appeared in publications such as Vogue (UK and Italy), Reuters, Vanity Fair (Italy), i-D Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and more.


 

 

Bridge Markland
Berlin native Bridge Markland is a virtuoso of roleplay and transformation. An artist who effortlessly crosses boundaries between dance, theatre, performance, cabaret and puppet theatre. Her speciality are gender-performances in which the audience can experience the change of woman to man (or vice versa). Markland is a pioneer of drag and gender performance in Germany and organized Drag-King events, tours and festivals between 1994 - 2002. With her productions, she has toured in Germany, Europe, USA, Canada, and Australia. Presently her main focus are collages of classical German theatre pieces with pop music – performed as lip-synced solos using role change and puppets. Other focus points of her work are silent movie expression, drag shows, gender transformations, erotic comedy, audience interactions, and dance.

 

Charly Voodoo
Charly Voodoo is a pianist, composer, and versatile burlesque & cabaret performer, among the first to join the Kabarett der Namenlosen cast. Based in Paris, he is a regular fixture at the Divan du Monde cabaret of Madame Arthur, which is located in the historic Quartier Pigalle – perhaps best known to many as the home of the Moulin Rouge. When in Berlin, Charly – a classically-trained, conservatory-educated former piano instructor who transitioned to the world of cabaret and burlesque – plays piano for KDN, often breathing life back into the old German cabaret songs of Friedrich Hollaender, Kurt Weill, and more.

 

Mama Ulita
Mama Ulita is a burlesque and cabaret performer based in Leipzig, Germany. She impersonates La Garçonne in Le Pustra's Kabarett Der Namenlosen. Ulita is also the first German burlesque performer who was invited to debut at the Tournament of Tease for the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas in 2014. Since that year, she carries the legacy of being Germany’s Queen of the Fire Tassels – an honor bestowed upon her by the legendary and recently-deceased American burlesque legend, Satan’s Angel. In June 2019, she performed at the Goethe-Institut Washington for Cabaret on K: A Celebration of Nightlife in 1920s Berlin and Modern D.C. as part of the projects Queer as German Folk and Wunderbar Together: The Year of German-American Friendship.