from
Alexander Menden
In the scene before the break, it gets particularly dark in André Kaczmarczyk’s Düsseldorf production of “Cabaret”. Miss Schneider, the protagonist’s landlady, has just become engaged to the Jewish greengrocer Herr Schultz. But then a pack of Nazis interrupts the celebration and intones “Der morgige Tag”, a folksy, menacing anthem that announces an approaching storm. Kaczmarczyk stands as Emcee on the right edge of the stage. The song ends triumphantly, giving the viewer chills down their spines. The emcee tilts his head mischievously to the side, smiles and shrugs his shoulders: “That’s the way it is now”, it could mean, or: “That’s what you get” or quite simply: “So what?” When asked about this gesture, Kaczmarczyk explains that one sees “the contrast between the hedonism of the Weimar Republic and the barbarism that is suggested”.