BENT WIT CABARET

Axe to Ice re-updates vaudeville

By DAVID DAY

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There is a whole lot of shaking going on. From the annual Slutcracker show to Boston Babydolls, the art of cabaret has a serious home in Boston. Karin Webb is the co-creator of the newest kid on the block, Axe to Ice Productions. Inspired by Franz Kafka's quote about "the ax for the frozen sea within us," they are a troupe explicitly designed to challenge the conventions of theater. Alongside Webb's spouse, Jill Gibson, they are a ragtag band of variety performers, including the legendary 86-years-young Mary Dolan. The monthly series will feature a rotating cast, plus a core of outrageous performers including Femme Brulee, Lainey Schulbaum (The Steamy Bohemians) and Sugar Dish (The Slutcracker). With live music from Elephant Tango Ensemble, they launch their series this Sunday. We spoke with Webb after a trip to Miami for the holidays.

Each monthly show will have a theme. Why did you pick "blue" for January?

I don't know, it was the first thing that came to my mind. I was thinking winter. The use of a theme is our way of taking a bunch of variety and weaving together a story with it. So we are always looking for performers who have just a really clear sense of their own art and their own point of view as an artist.

Is there a rivalry between local burlesque companies?

[Laughs] No, I don't think so. It's a really rich community. One of the major things about Boston is that it's very segregated, so you have 15 groups of people doing the same exact work, but you have the gay group, you have the straight theater scene that does that work and you have the person-of-color group. I strive to bring together as many communities as possible.

There's all sorts of cabaret popping up in this city. It seems like a Boston phenomenon.

I've been producing and performing in Boston since '96. I feel like here, there is a huge gap between underground theater performers or burlesque performers who have troupes versus legit theaters in the city. You're working in this system. You feel the glass ceiling—it's hard to break through. Many years ago, we started doing very basic versions of this. The underground theater scene has been gaining a lot of momentum and energy in the last decade. People who are part of that group have become more popular and famous, and that continues to steamroll. Our productions are bigger. Our pool of people and artists and people that we know are bigger. Our names are better known.

Why Kafka?

It's really kind of my concept that art or performance should affect an audience. They could see a movie, but instead they chose to be in a place that is dangerous, and the fear should always be dangerous. Our ideas should be dangerous, our movements should be dangerous.

<b>

You're a radical.

Ah-hah, perhaps!

BENT WIT CABARET
SUNDAY 1.10.10
CLUB OBERON
2 ARROW ST.,
HARVARD SQ.
CAMBRIDGE
8PM/18+/$20 ADV, $25 DOS
AXE2ICE.COM
CLUBOBERON.COM