cabaret stages the tension between entertainment and political collapse — a drag performance set against the backdrop of war and forced displacement. the aesthetic of liza minnelli’s cabaret — sequins, bowler hats, exaggerated eyeliner — clashes with images of the russian-ukrainian war, the polish-belarusian border crisis, and racialized violence against refugees. the body, draped in fishnets and corsetry, becomes a site of both seduction and confrontation.
the striptease sequences are not just erotic; they’re political. the peeling away of clothing parallels the exposure of geopolitical violence. the exaggerated camp and spectacle resist the gravity of the imagery — a deliberate contrast that exposes the artifice of political neutrality. pleasure and suffering are not opposing forces here — they bleed into one another.
chains and props associated with bdsm complicate the dynamic — submission and domination extend beyond sexual performance into the realm of state control and border politics. the body, marked by drag’s hyper-femininity and the violence of war, stands as both a symbol of resilience and a reminder of precarity.
the phrase "no to war, no to borders, no person is illegal" punctuates the work’s refusal to separate art from politics. the queer body, long positioned at the margins, becomes a site of both pleasure and resistance. cabaret refuses resolution — it leaves the audience complicit, caught between the lure of spectacle and the harshness of lived reality.