Stagecoach Youth Theatre York puts its skills and reputation for challenging theatre on the line next week when presenting the Kander-Ebb musical Cabaret.
In contrast to York Musical Theatre Company's production in May at the Theatre Royal, the Stagecoach version will be a "studio show", as director John Cooper modestly describes it.
In Cooper terms, this means the entire upper floor of the company's home at Trinity Hall, in Monkgate, has been converted into the Kit-Kat club with tables and chairs for an audience of 60 together with a cabaret stage. Also, there will be a small bar for patrons during each performance.
If the staging is unorthodox, Cooper's direction is seeking to be equally radical: he has asked the young company to concentrate as much on the socio-political aspects of the writing as on the choreographed numbers.
"When we first started work on Cabaret we made a deliberate decision to ignore the movie. Wonderful as it was, the lush photography and diva-making performance of Lisa Minelli clouded the overall intention of the piece, in our view," Cooper says.
"The musical deals with the rise of the Third Reich and uses the decadence of the cabaret as a deliberate instrument of distraction from what was happening in the real world where ordinary people were making huge sacrifices in order just to stay alive."
He adds: "We are buffeted from the joyous excesses of the cabaret to horrific persecution of the Jews. It takes an incredibly powerful and compelling piece of theatre to evoke such strong emotions in both actor and audience and to achieve this goal in the musical genre makes Cabaret very special."
The director acknowledges the enormous support he has received from parents and friends of Stagecoach, including video and sound engineers and York St John's College, in presenting this ambitious production.
Leading roles go to Felicity Skiera as Sally Bowles, Nicholas Holbek as Cliff Bradshaw and Mark Pollard as Emcee in Cabaret's run at Trinity Hall from July 8 to 12 at 8pm nightly.
Tickets cost £6, concessions £4, and booking in advance on 01904 674675 is advised because most performances are already close to capacity.
Updated: 10:30 Friday, July 04, 2003
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