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Time Brings Roses: A Radio Cabaret

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BBC Radio 4 - Time Brings Roses: A Radio Cabaret

A radio cabaret from Berlin. Come hear the music play at Juwelia’s Neukoelln gallery.

Welcome to the cabaret at Juwelia’s gallery in Neukölln, Berlin. Our hostess is at the window, a rose in her hair, waiting to see what happens. “Who knows what the evening will bring?” she is fond of saying. “I’m sitting here and I look good. That’s all, no?”

It is a schmoozy-coozy salon, a space for burlesque, where shared fantasies become reality. Juwelia’s paintings cover the walls, self-portraits with lovers in sunflower fields or by the bins at the local U-Bahn station. Her songs tell of a changing neighbourhood - “Once Bratwurst, now Champagne” - and of her life as the most beautiful woman in Berlin.

“The ways of my own life have led me elsewhere. But I hope that some young foreigner has fallen in love with this city and is writing what happened or might have happened to him there...” - Christopher Isherwood, Preface to The Berlin Stories.

We arrive at the Juwelia's with the guests to take our place at a tiny table and drink Sekt. At some point the show begins - songs, dancing, a lecture on capitalism delivered with the aid of two balloons. Guests step up from the audience to take a turn on the little stage. Our Isherwood-quoting narrator is a sound recordist, happy to put down the book and the broom and enter the world of the cabaret.

Produced by Phil Smith
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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