Jacqueline Graif

Arts and Culture Correspondent

“The Kit Kat Klub Girls” via Contact Theatre 

(Left to Right, Top to Bottom) Maya Lewis, Erin Yardley Jones, Julie d’Entremont, Alexandra Abitbol, Michelle Laliberte, Courtney Crawford, and Caeleigh McDonald 

“There was a Cabaret, and there was a Master of Ceremonies, and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany… And it was the end of the world.” – Cabaret 

Contact Theatre is an award-winning local theatre company known for their outstanding, modern musicals. They typically host their productions in a small venue called “Studio Hydro-Quebec” in the Monument National Theatre. The small venue creates an enchanting, and alluring space for their past productions such as Next to Normal, and Spring Awakening, but especially their May production of Cabaret. Running from May 16-24, Contact’s Cabaret invites guests into a completely immersive evening. 

Contact Theatre does not waste an inch of space in “Studio Hydro Quebec.” There are small tables set up with rotary telephones next to a brightly-lit elevated platform, transforming the space into a real 1930s club in Berlin. The cast moves through the entire space, sometimes interacting with the audience, including the balcony and the aisles as the show roars on. As the Emcee (played by Mairead Rynne) takes the stage, the audience is immediately swept away in “forgetting their troubles” in this extravagant, yet poignant production. 

Musical numbers such as “Money” performed by Rynne, effectively got the message of capitalistic society across. The number is not only relevant to 1930s Berlin, but to society in 2025, making Cabaret an important and relevant musical for the contemporary world. “Money makes the world go around” provides an entertaining yet thoughtful discernment into the struggles of the sex-workers and performers in this 1930 Klub. The ensemble members carry the dances in the numbers brilliantly, most notably Helga (Alexandra Abitbol) and Fritzie/Fraulein Kost (Erin Yardley Jones) who encompass their characters with indignation and skill. 

Sally Bowles is played by Julie d’Entremont who manages to entertain the emotional, messy side of Sally as the character performs through her many issues. The core of her performance is in the song “Cabaret” where she has a full breakdown onstage in smudged lipstick as her life shatters to pieces. Julie portrays Sally in her sensual, performative way, but manages to embody the gentle, emotional side of her brilliantly. Her dedication to the character is obvious as she swallows an entire raw egg on stage disguised as a “prairie oyster.” Alongside Sally is the Emcee (Mairead Rynne) who takes over the stage anytime she steps on. She is funny, delightful, but also an extremely talented actor who shows the dark side of the Kit Kat Klub through emotional captivity. Rynne steals the show with their skilled acting and charming personality. 

Geniously directed and choreographed by visionary Debora Friedmann, the musical moves between scenes that encompass the rising political tensions in 1930s Berlin, and amusing musical numbers. The plot somehow always redirects back to the tense society in Germany before World War Two. Friedmann’s directing is clever in this way, as she aids the text in making very quick turns from a tense scene to a dazzling musical number in the Kit Kat Klub. She shows the contrast between the rising issues in Germany, and the members of society who had no choice but to keep performing. As a Jewish woman, Friedmann’s insight into antisemitism shines through, especially as the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor. She is able to silence the audience with the command of the cast, as Nazi soldiers march through the Klub. 

“Contact Theatre’s Cabaret invites a compelling, raunchy evening in a smoggy, 1930s club in Berlin, while managing to incorporate pertinent political elements that remain relevant in today’s political climate.”

The conclusion of the musical is extremely rigid, leaving the audience in a deathly silence. As the Nazi party comes into power in Berlin, we see the decline of the Kit Kat Klub and the performers in it. With glass left on the stage from an attack on a Jewish man, Herr Schultz (Daniel Wilkenfeld) the show continues with the broken shards, remnants of the attack are always omnipresent. The broken shards are likely an homage to Kristellnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass) where German-Jewish storefronts were destroyed in November 1938 as an attack of arson and vandalism by the Nazi party. 

The lights fade to black abruptly after “Finale”, and the cast members come on stage in yellow stars, pink, black, and red triangles as they take their bow; a powerful message about all of the people persecuted in the Holocaust. The inverted pink triangles represented homosexuals in concentration camps, while the red and blue triangles represent foreign labourers and prisoners of war. The triangles are an important addition that sets this particular production apart from other showings of Cabaret. 
Contact Theatre’s Cabaret invites a compelling, raunchy evening in a smoggy, 1930s club in Berlin, while managing to incorporate pertinent political elements that remain relevant in today’s political climate. It is a show that leaves the audience in reflection as to what the world around them really has become after being enchanted in a whimsical evening at the Kit Kat Klub.