Miniloft guests often ask me where they can see Berlin cabaret, in the raucous tradition of the Weimar Republic. Cabaret as Brecht knew it is a thing of the past. (Although Brecht's Dreigroschenoper and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny are frequently staged at theatres like the Berliner Ensemble - Brecht's own theatre - and Deutsches Theater. If you speak German, these theatres are a must.) But this month I'm happy to have a ready answer to the cabaret-questers: the Tiger Lillies Freak Show, modern-day punk cabaret. The Tiger Lillies, a dark, perverse trio with a cult following, have been around since 1989, and are now putting on a big, month-long dinner-show at the nostalgic venue Wintergarten Variete. Peculiar, captivating, energetic, magical, beautiful and very weird, the show explores the deviant charms of the abnormal: Ceatures with three hearts and six arms, and Siamese twins attached at the hip, come to life to shock, thrill and satiate our curiosity of the bizarre.

Click here for a very informative blog about cabaret in Weimar Berlin. And here is a New York Times article about a secret little cabaret club in West Berlin.

By the way - Brecht and his wife are buried in the cemetery down the street from the Miniloft apartments.

Tiger Lillies Freak Show
Wintergarten Berlin, Mitte
Through February 6, 2012