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Contents I. Introduction.....2 Ii. French Cabaret......3 Le Chat Noir Shadow ...

Contents

I. Introduction.....2
II. French Cabaret......3
Le Chat Noir
Shadow Theatre: Forerunner of Cinema
Women in Cabaret
III. Cabaret in Berlin..7
Roots in Munich
Otto Julius Bierbaum and Deutsche Chansons
The Eleven Executioners
IV. Later Cabaret..12
Christopher Isherwood
Cabaret in Film: Cabaret
Cabaret in Film: The Blue Angel
V. Conclusion.....14
References..16I. Introduction
The term ‘cabaret' is derived from the French word for wine cellar or tavern, and eventually was used to refer to any type of business that sold alcoholic beverages. However, as historian Lisa Appignanesi explains, popular usage ‘conjures up visions of sleazy strip joints on dank city streets or nightclubs where the exorbitant price of cocktails is rarely linked to the meager stage fare' (2004: p. 1). Cabaret, since its emergence in the late 1800s, has been a popular form of entertainment, particularly during times of oppression. This can be understood by tracing its early days in Paris, up through the German ‘Kabarett', as it was known, in the 1920s and 1930s. The year 1881 is often thought of as the ‘beginning' of cabaret, for this was the year in which Le Chat Noir (or ‘Black Cat') came into existence in the Montmartre section of Paris. However, Appignanesi points out that in the mid-fifteenth century in France, the notion of cabaret was already in existence; wine cellars were frequently the locale for live entertainment: ‘The two forms of artistic cabaret which were to emerge some centuries later were already there in germ: cabaret as a meeting place for artists where performance or improvisation takes place among peers, and cabaret as an intimate, small-scale but intellectually ambitious revue' (2004: p. 1).
The form of cabaret that came into existence in 1881 had a more intellectual and artistic atmosphere, perhaps in part due to the formation of a literary society known as the ‘Hydropathes'. This was a group of artists, primarily writers and poets, who would convene weekly to share work with one another. Their popularity grew rapidly and their numbers increased. This, according to Appignanesi, was the start of the true nature of cabaret: ‘It emerged either as a laboratory, a testing ground for young artists who often deliberately advertised themselves as an avant-garde, or as the satirical stage of contemporaneity, a critically reflective mirror of topical events, morals, politics and culture'(2004: p. 5).
II. French Cabaret
By the eighteenth century France, the tradition of offering food and drink had begun to take hold; however, it was not until the nineteenth century that the notion of ‘cafés-concerts' was fully accepted.

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