Spielpalast Cabaret -- with Eva and Amir, Irv and Barb's descendants-- takes Edinburgh by storm!

Edinburgh Festival Reviews-- Spielpalast... One thing I was hoping to find in my cabaret aventures was a show that captured the transgressive atmosphere of the sort of pre-war Berlin cabaret scene. And I have never seen anyone succeed quite like Spielpalast - a raggle-taggle group of players from Vermont, of all places. This 90-minute late night show begins with members of the company, dressed like semi-naked steampunks, moving among the audience offering to sell them nudie post cards. The master of ceremony is outstanding - pure Kit-Kat Klub - conniving, slightly sinister, willing to do anything to make the show go with a bang. The performers are a bunch of freaks and misfits, dancers, singers, actors and clowns and one very small rabbit. There's a storyline of sorts - an evil phalanx of capitalists is trying to buy out the cabaret, one of the dancers has become a born-again Christian and there is a robot dancer and a tiny rabbit on the loose. As promised by the nudie postcards there is the odd flash of flesh as part of the entertainment - but a glimpse of a nipple or a bum is used to surprise you or as a punchline, rather than as part of some sort of proscribed sexiness. Spielpalast make nudity seem naughty - no mean feat in these days of wall-to-wall burlesque, and actors and comedians waving their willies all over town. This is not a perfect show by any means; the dancing and singing are sometimes a bit sloppy and the gags could be better. But the anything-goes, freewheeling, uninhibited atmosphere of this show is really something unique.