“A Smile and a Tear” – Dutch Cabaret As a Satirical Vessel for Social Critique
“A smile and a tear” – Dutch cabaret as a satirical vessel for social critique Robrecht Herfkens University of Western Australia Dutch cabaret is a theatrical genre that originated from France in the year 1881. 1 Initially established to create a new performance genre between art and entertainment, it found its way to the Dutch theatres at the start of the 20th century. However, this geographical relocation had little influence on the core elements of an original French cabaret performance, that was now adapted into the Dutch national culture. Dutch cabaret is, aside from entertainment, a way of confronting the audience with a certain aspect of reality or humanity that is usually avoided in public. Thus, contemporary Dutch cabaret, as generally a one-man, stand-up performance, expresses opinions or ideas that touch on topical issues, taboos, or other ‘sacred cows’. One could subsequently summarize Dutch cabaret as a performance art focusing on societal, political, or cultural critique. To do so, satire is essential to any cabaret performance, as it is an effective means for critique to be delivered to a corresponding audience. In what follows, I will provide a definition and a short history explaining what Dutch cabaret in essence entails. Next, I will discuss why satire and social critique is essential in Dutch cabaret, and I will explain how it uses these concepts. Through examples of a selection of Dutch cabaret performance excerpts, it will be shown in what way social critique is delivered, how it is done, and what their according purposes and effects are. Because Dutch cabaret performances are always performed in the Dutch language, I have taken the liberty of freely translating some performance excerpts from Dutch to English.
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