The award-winning Bernie Dieter gives her most provocative and hilarious self to Brisbane in 'Bernie Dieter In Konzert' – a melting pot of vocals, glittering sequins, and oozing charm.
Bernie's presence and performance style is a delightful and electrifying blend of Lady Gaga, Marlene Dietrich and Frank-N-Furter, and 'Bernie Dieter In Konzert' is set to be a night audiences won't soon forget. She has sold out everywhere from London's West End to Arts Centre Melbourne with elements of gender-bending sexual freedom, musical liberation and an atmosphere of sheer mayhem, not to be missed.
This show is a part of Open Season – a curated programme of music and art running across Brisbane's The Princess Theatre and The Tivoli during winter.
Before 'Bernie Dieter In Konzert', we speak to the kabarett queen herself.
For those feeling adventurous but are new to ‘Weimar punk kabarett’. . . What can you tell us about it?
Picture the kabarett clubs of Weimar Berlin – smokey, debauched dens of inequity where they explored gender, sexuality, politics through boundary-pushing performance that didn’t take itself too seriously. There is something very punk about that, people from all walks of life drinking together, laughing together at the crazy world we live in, so grab a shot of something strong, it’s going to be one hell of a party.
What inspires you, artistically?
I have always drawn huge inspiration from my Oma – her family owned a circus in East Germany long before the Berlin Wall came down and as a young girl she was smuggled from East to West Germany hiding in a circus caravan. I guess it is just in my blood.
And how would you describe the show you’re set to bring to The Princess Theatre in Brisbane?
I have my gin-soaked Haus band The Vier with me – and we will be bringing you a riotous 70 minutes of music, with our own take on everything from MGMT to Marlene Dietrich, Brecht to Bowie and some of my original songs as well, transporting you straight to the back rooms of Berlin dive bars.
What’s your favourite thing about performing?
The connection with the audience, the feeling in the room when people are all packed in together and they laugh and let loose and stroke their neighbour’s thigh, make friends with the strangers sitting next to them. The electricity in the air.
You’ve played around the world. What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned doing this?
That while audiences around the world are all very different, they ultimately do want the same thing – connection. The one thing you can’t get from Netflix that you can only get from other humans being together. And they all like gin.
If you could perform alongside anyone, alive or dead. . . Who is your #1 choice and why?
Nina Hagen. She is in her late '60s now but she is known as the Godmother of German Punk – so creative, so versatile, so completely bad ass. You never know what to expect when she walks on a stage so it’s always dangerous and exciting. I think we could make an incredible show together!
There are covers in this show but also a few originals of your own. What sorts of things do you write about?
Sex, politics, dick pics. . . All the things that are hilarious and controversial and that you should never talk about at dinner parties.
Describe the show, using a lyric FROM the show!
“Come on and dance with me before we all disappear – cos hell is empty baby and all the devils are here!”
'Bernie Dieter In Konzert' is on at The Princess Theatre (Brisbane) 22 July.
