"Cabaret at the Edge of the World," sponsored by the Department of Drama and Dance, the Department of Music and Tufts Hillel, will take place at 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow night at Hillel.
The performances will reflect the cabaret acts that used to take place in ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust. Rabbi Jeffrey Summit explains that the performance will not consist of music Jews were forced to perform but rather, music men and women decided to perform on their own.
"Artists, musicians and actors insisted on maintaining normalcy in the face of oppression. [The cabarets are] a testament to their spirit and creativity," Summit said.
In addition to Summit, Professor Laurence Senelick, Professor Barbara Grossman and lecturer Michael McLaughlin each played important roles in the creation of this free performance. Students will take part in the skits and songs as well. Graduate student Helen Lewis, seniors Dave Adler and Stacy Davidowitz and sophomore Jeremy Price will perform alongside Tufts' klezmer orchestra, also known as the Jumbo Knish Factory.
Professor Grossman explains, "This cabaret is something that originated at Tufts in the early '90s and has become the prototype for other Holocaust cabarets on other campuses ... [The goal is to] honor the people who performed in ghettos and concentration camps, perpetuate their memory and think about people who are oppressed and suffering in world today. Art can be a form of spiritual resistance: When normal lives ended in ghettos, people didn't just throw up their hands and say 'woe is me' - people tried to maintain as normal a life as they could for as long as they could."
Rabbi Summit adds that some audiences may find aspects of the show "disturbing," noting that some songs "took on symbolic meaning when performed in ghettos or concentration camps." He noted the Irving Berlin song "Blue Skies" as an example. There will be Yiddish and Polish songs that originated during the Holocaust as well as some darkly comic skits that will expose the racist underbelly of Nazi thought.
Due to time constraints, Grossman said that the cabaret will be a "concert version," meaning, in this case, that actors will not be off-book and costumes will consist of all-black clothing. She also mentions that there will be a talk-back session after the performances for audiences to open up a discussion with the program creators and actors.
- by Diana Landes
