'Fight Before Christmas' cabaret hits Whitefish bar
<p><strong>THE VISCOSITY</strong> Cabaret (from left): Adam Pitman, David Blair, Collette Taylor, Becky Rygg, Mikey Winn and Rebeccas Schaffer. (Lindsay Jane Photography)</p>
The Viscosity Cabaret takes the stage at the Great Northern Bar in Whitefish for three nights, Dec. 19-21, with its raucous holiday show “Fight Before Christmas.”
Tickets are on sale now for $16 and will be available at the door for $20. Shows on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday begin at 8 p.m., with a final late show Wednesday at 10:15 p.m.
Rebecca Schaffer, Viscosity Theatre’s co-founder and one of the show’s six performers, said the group had generated a wealth of material — about 14 hours worth — but still made some late changes last month.
“We started brainstorming things and writing things in October, and initially it was a cheeky ‘How the Cabaret Stole Christmas,’ kind of a funny, Grinch-ey thing,” Schaffer said. “Then as everything started happening, and everyone was fighting, and families were being upended and friends were being upended we decided to take a different direction.
“We also love blood.”
Viscosity had been performing cabarets — shows at non-traditional theater venues like restaurants and bars — at the Crush Lounge before it closed in February. “Fight Before Christmas” marks the second anniversary for the cabaret group, and Schaffer and her cohorts have relished the opportunity to take their art to a different crowd.
“We’re trying to reach people who wouldn’t normally come to theater and we can be that crossover, that gateway theater,” Schaffer said. “One of the things about this particular show, about the cabaret, that’s really blown me away is how engaged the audience is.
“Right now is such an interesting time to be an artist because suddenly people don’t know what to do or how to navigate what’s happening, so they are turning to the arts to just make sense of everything. It gives you different perspectives that might not be obvious and that is our hope for this show.
“That’s what we’ve always set out to do but suddenly it feels like it’s grown in magnitude in that regard.”
“Fight Before Christmas” stars Adam Pitman, Collette Taylor, Mikey Winn, David Blair, Becky Rygg and Schaffer.
For more information and to buy tickets to any of the four scheduled shows, visit www.viscositycabaret.org.