Karen Kohler premiered her new show, Little Death , at The Zipper Theater. More a theater piece than a cabaret act, Little Death is presented in two parts. The first, “Sex Act,” played on October 8 and will be reprised on October 22. The second, “Death Act” will play on October 15 and be repeated on the 29^th.

Looking glamorous and overtly—almost aggressively—sexy, Karen explored the connection between sex and death: each half of the show has its own song list that emphasizes one or other side of the equation.  The connection itself has a long history.  When a Shakespearean character announces to a lover that he “dies” for her, he is announcing that he is experiencing an orgasm. Today the expression is more likely to be that he is “coming”—hence the double entendre in Karen’s subtitle. She also draws on the French expression for “the little death,” which describes post-orgasmic release and ecstasy.

In “Sex Act,” voice, body language, and dramatic readings from literature all convey the physicality of sex.  Her personae vary widely.  A passionate woman moves to a Leonard Cohen song about dance and shows how close dancing itself is to the sex act.  A somewhat more “common” woman in search of sexual satisfaction looks for a “man what” does it slow.  Goethe’s Gretchen (from Faust) has become insane because she has not only lost her lover but is deprived of physical contact with him: the song is Schubert’s “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel.”  “J’arrive” is given an arrangement that will be new even to Jacques Brel fans, the title close to the French “je viens,” which translates as  “I’m coming.” “Fever,” popularized by Peggy Lee, is also highly original, with a primitive drumbeat supplied by the percussionist.

It is a daring performance, evoking erotic fantasies, but never vulgar.  “Death Act,” Part 2, does not make the traditional and therefore more obvious connection between sex and death. Karen quotes from Andrew Marvel’s seventeenth-century verse: “The grave’s a fine and quiet place, / But none I think do there embrace.”  The “but” signals a disjunction between sex and death, and Karen’s audience may have to strain at times to discern connections that are there but not as immediately accessible as in “Sex Act.” In the end, it doesn’t matter.  Karen’s looks and her fine artistry, the latter beyond anything she has yet demonstrated to New York audiences, both support and transcend theme. Dressed in an elaborate, fiery red gown, whose elegance is deliberately undercut by her bare feet, she projects passion; the infernal; and at times the spectral, as she appears both of this world and not of it.  Her voice, a beautiful, strong, clear instrument, ranges between her high soprano and lower registers as she sings in different languages and moves easily among different musical genres: art song, folk, popular, country blues, gospel.  Her themes are love and parting, as in the beloved Brel song, “If You Go Away.” It’s real, French title, “Ne me quittes pas” (don’t leave me), are the words that might be cried aloud to a beloved who is dying or has died. Karen also explores the macabre (suicide, murder, executions, burials). A defiantly hedonistic “Who Wants to Live Forever” fittingly closes the show. It expresses the ultimate connection between death and sex by subtly employing a centuries-old carpe diem theme (eat, drink, [make love], and be merry, for tomorrow we die).

One of the interesting features of this two-part show is its evocation of the German romantic idea of the “total art work” (a Wagnerian concept), a production that brings together elements of story, drama, singing, orchestra, dance, and spectacle. Karen’s program is itself a work of creative writing. Even the Zipper Theater contributes to the total effect.  The converted zipper factory is offbeat and funky (in the theater, the audience sits on old automobile seats). Its antique and dusty aura exudes just the slightest touch of decadence, which works very well with Karen’s themes. She is backed by a five-piece ensemble that supplies concert-level accompaniment: music director Doug Oberhamer is on piano; Sean Harkness on guitar; Meg Okura on violin; Scott Thornton on bass; and Dave Anthony on percussion.  Karen collaborated with Tom Nazziola and Doug Oberhamer on the stunning arrangements.  To quote the show’s publicity, it is directed by John-Richard Thompson, known for his “long-running cabaret cult phenomena Erik and the Snow Maidens." Rob Kohler, Karen’s husband, produced

Barbara Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
October 8, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org