Cabaret evening at Bristol Improv Theatre with music from MMM project

Singers/Performers from Bristol University after the performance

Curated by Florian Scheding and Norbert Meyn (Royal College of Music), Bristol's Being Human Festival staged The Good Old Budapest! Cabaret in British Exile, a cabaret that recreated songs, plays, and sketches by refugees in Britain during WWII, some of which had not been performed for over 80 years. The programme included songs by composers Eric Sanders and Hans Gál which were edited and made available for the first time through the Music, Migration and Mobility project at the Royal College of Music. It was a sellout evening in the charming cabaret venue in central Bristol. The young performers studied the repertoire in a workshop with Florian Scheding and Norbert Meyn, which took place a week before the performance.

The full ensemble after the performance

With alternating musical and theatrical numbers, the performance gave an insight into the experience of WW2 refugees in Britain. The programme had audiences laughing as well as contemplating the hardships those refugees had to endure.

Florian Scheding (right), the initiator of the project, with Norbert Meyn (Royal College of Music)

Florian Scheding is the prizewinning author of Musical Journeys - Performing Migration in Twentieth - Century Music, and a leading expert on the musical migrations of the period. His innovative approach was a major inspiration for the work of the Music, Migration and Mobility project.

One of the spoken scenes, with props!