Plenty in the Twenties
Bang! Bang! Cabaret Does Prohibition—Unrepressed
Montreal is about to go up in flames. As November temperatures drop, local production company Cirquantique is turning up the heat with a performance show so tantalizing, it ought to be prohibited.
Bang! Bang! is a Roaring Twenties Prohibition-themed cabaret spectacle—the second installation in a series of shows with themes centered around different eras in history.
For the uninitiated, a cabaret show is comprised of an ensemble of burlesque and circus style acts, put on by artists of varying disciplines.
One such artist is co-producer, artistic director and performance artist, Esmeralda Nadeau-Jasso. After joining a circus troupe at the age of 17, she has since perfected many talents, including stilt-walking, costume design—and playing with fire.
“There will be lots of fire! I’ll be eating fire, I will be lighting my clothes on fire to take them off. There will be lots of pyrotechnics involved,” she said excitedly.
In total, the show counts over 30 artists, all of whom have roots within the city itself.
“All of them are local to Montreal. They’re all very fresh artists. Quite a few of them are coming straight from the Montreal circus school,” said Mitchell Bundy, producer and administrative director. “They’re really excited.”
While circus and burlesque have become a popular combination in the past few years, Bang! Bang! ups the already lofty ante, literally, by incorporating aerial acts, the previously mentioned fire performances and—the maraschino on top of the entire cocktail—live music accompaniment.
The Unsettlers, a Montreal-based eleven-piece band who play brassy, swanky music, are a perfect fit for the vintage whiskey-soaked event.
“The live band makes a huge difference,” said Nadeau-Jasso. “It just brings it up that much more.”
“We’re trying to push every boundary,” Bundy added. “I’ve never seen anything to this extent happen in Montreal. It’s been quite a process, with the initial conceptualization and finding all the pieces.”
The show has been in the works since June, with the 1920s theme in sight from the very beginning.
In January 1920, the passage in America of the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act meant the sale and consumption of alcohol was illegal in the United States.
In Canada, provinces had been imposing and then repealing prohibition laws for the past 20 years.
Quebec was the province least disposed to the idea; their prohibition only lasted two years, and legislators there ultimately opted instead for the regulation of liquor sales, which lead to the birth of the Commission des liqueurs du Québec, a precursor to the now-ubiquitous SAQ stores.
South of the border, however, where liquor was completely outlawed, people turned to underground bars, also known as ‘speakeasies,’ to drink.
“It was all run by the mafia,” said Bundy, who brushed up on his history in order to give the artists a framework to shape their costumes and acts within.
With plenty of research under their collective belts, the artists performing in the cabaret have their sights set upon bringing a unique, genuine experience to their audience.
“It’s a whole story around what life was like in the 1920s. We’re trying to really bring people into that era, and afterwards we’re just going to have a big party,” said Nadeau-Jasso.
While it is safe to say that liquor consumption never faded in popularity, other elements of the era have recently come back in vogue.
HBO’s Prohibition-era drama series Boardwalk Empire continues to gain popularity and director Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary classic The Great Gatsby is garnering plenty of attention, despite the fact that it won’t be released until next year.
The hallmarks of the ’20s are stepping back onto the stage of popular culture, especially in Montreal, which has taken to the music of the times more strongly than anything else.
“One of the big reasons we decided on a Prohibition theme is that it’s huge in Montreal right now. There’s a swing revival happening, and electro-swing, which is a fusion genre. Within the past year it’s really taken off,” said Bundy.
“The genre is a blend between electric and swing music, and so is the party. There will be swing dancing, there will be ‘whatever’ dancing,” he said, when asked what an attendee might expect of the post-show bash.
For the costume-minded, hallmarks of style for every 1920s man, from the lower class worker to the high rolling mobster, included a clean-cut suit and hat, while women wore dresses with a boxy, boyish silhouette, red lips, pearls, and fringe.
Overall, it will be a night of sensual drama, live music, flames, and of course, booze. Despite the forbidden theme, attendees should rest assured that the liquor will be flowing, and a good time is promised for all.
“We’re going to have a lot of fun!” says Nadeau-Jasso. “It’s going to be sensual and fantastical. We’re going to show how unrepressed we can be.”
Bang! Bang! / Nov. 10 / Bain Mathieu (2915 Ontario St.) / 8:00 p.m. / $20 advance, $25 door
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