Kabarett

Kabarett is the German-language tradition of satirical cabaret: an intimate stage entertainment of topical chansons, monologues, sketches and lyric ballads performed in cellar theatres and small rooms, where performers address the audience directly. Emerging in Berlin around 1901 with venues such as *Ernst von Wolzogen*'s Buntes Theater and the Schall und Rauch, it fused French cabaret with German literary culture, and its Weimar-era flowering made it a vehicle for political satire, erotic candour and social critique. Singers such as *Claire Waldoff* and *Marlene Dietrich* defined its confiding, ironic delivery, usually supported by piano or a small band rather than a full orchestra.