A visit to Reykjavik‘s Cabaret

I had no idea what to expect when I sat down at one of Reykjavik Kabarett’s shows . Burlesque and its varieties are new in Iceland, its gaining popularity mostly thanks to the Reykjavik Kabarett group and its leader Margrét Erla Maack.

When the show started, performers streamed on to the stage one after another. The performances were short and as varied as they were many. When the break came I had laughed a lot, but still didn’t know exactly what I thought of it. This was different from anything else I had seen.

My boyfriend accompanied me to the show, even more clueless than I. After some time he turned to me and said, “I did NOT expect you would be taking me to a strip show!”

That was a joke, of course. Reykjavik Kabarett is definitely erotic, with crude jokes, tight suits and exposed flesh, but it’s a show with music, dance and even magic.

And what a show. We both had a big smile plastered to our faces while walking home. I didn’t think all the performances were brilliant. Some were, and others were good enough. But overall the show was great fun!

Not suitable for children, for many reasons

On every advertisement from Reykjavik Kabarett it says the show is not suitable for children because of crude humour and nudity.

Which is true, there are plenty of things to see on the stage that are not suitable for children. Sitting at the show another reason occurred to me.

Children believe grownups to be mature and behave like, well, grownups. Imagine the reaction if they’d realise that the simplest humour, not much evolved from the humour of a five year old, can make a hall full of grownups roaring with laughter. The only difference is that the “taboos” of the jokes are farts for a five year old and sex and reproductive organs for grownups.

No matter the language

One of the great things about a show like this is that it transcends languages. I saw the show at a hostel and the audience was from all over the world. Everyone laughed, no matter if they could understood the words said on stage either in Icelandic or English.

I’ve only seen a part of the performances of Reykjavik Kabarett. There’s a group behind it which rotates performances, and every show has guest performances. This means every show is different. Reykjavik Cabarett will be performing at Rósenberg in Reykjavik every Thursday in June at 22:00, and I think I could easily see all of their shows and never get bored.

Here you can find out more about Reykjavik Kabarett and here you can buy tickets to the show.