Alexandra Galkina’s ‘Happy Artist’s Hard Core Set’
Whitechapel Gallery, London
By Elise Allthorpe-Mullis
I had no idea what to expect from Russian cabaret, and after a night of it, in the form of Cabaret Kultura, I still have no idea what to expect from Russian cabaret. Performed at the candlelit Whitechapel Gallery, Cabaret Kultura involved free vodka and an eclectic mix of acts, some of them entertaining. But a large part of the evening was spent glancing around, wondering who amongst us was getting it.
The first act, Joanna Dudley’s A Guided Tour of the Exhibition: For Soprano and Handbag, accompanied by works from South African artist William Kentridge, described itself aptly as ‘fighting against interpretation’. A mixture of live action and charcoal animation was projected in the background as Dudley guided the audience through the different ‘rooms’. She whistled, she sang, she mimicked a broken audio guide. At one point she broke into screeching. The animations were fascinating, but, thanks in part to the unfortunate choreography that placed the screen in shadows, it was difficult to see them, let alone know what they represented.
The second act did not help to dispel the shadows. Sasha Pirogova’s choreographed piece attempted to create a ‘parallel dimension of movement and meaning’, but consisted of dancers crawling among the audience while scraping glasses. Things improved with the third act. Alexandra Galkina’s Happy Artist’s Hard Core Set, featuring the welcome addition of house and dance music to our evening of Cabaret, was accompanied by documentary footage of avant-garde pioneers. Next up, Feast in Short Stories had potential. We heard humorous tales of Ukrainian life, art and politics, told by the work’s creator Alevtina Kakhidze. There were flashes of comedic brilliance, not least the references to a British grandmother living as an illegal immigrant in a Ukrainian village. But ultimately it was let down by the confused and convoluted delivery.
And finally to the audience-participation section of our evening. A round of bingo landed several unsuspecting audience members on stage to ritually sacrifice a dolphin-shaped helium balloon in exchange for a sculpture. Much to the chagrin of the Cilla Black-inspired host, several people refused the slay the dolphin and took it home instead of the sculpture, leading to cat calls from the audience along the lines of ‘Have mercy!’. Parts of it were very funny, and as a whole, it was certainly memorable, enhanced by the sparkly, gameshow staging. However, the lack of context ultimately left at least some of us baffled, bored and fighting over dolphin balloons. 
Excellent and erudite!