Erstellt am: 5. 6. 2010 - 11:52 Uhr
My Reality: Cheating on New York
It should have been a typical evening at Verein08, the ultimate heaven of Viennese underground Gemütlichkeit. We had put on a workshop performance of our new cabaret piece, Cheating on New York, and were basking in the glow of our success despite having conceived, composed, rehearsed, and premiered this show within the span of four weeks. Or then again, perhaps it wasn´t so typical - we were loud, crass, shameless, and unafraid to sound ugly, but utterly winsome in our newly acquired dirndls.
Sascha Osaka
Sometimes Reality Check hands over its Saturday Special programme to a member of our community who takes us inside their world, in a feature called FM4 - My Reality. This week Renee Benson and Meaghan Burke of Cheating on New York share their reality with Riem Higazi. On FM4 this Saturday, 12 to 1 p.m.
Suddenly there was a commotion outside the WC … “der hat auf´s Scheiß gepissen!!!” Obscenities were hollered, punches thrown, and suddenly a less positive sort of New York energy had entered the space. A gentleman caller/fan had, perhaps inspired by our performance, taken it upon himself to place the entire contents of the Klosett – clean toilet paper, soap, candles, books, a can of beer – in the toilet bowl, arrange the items with great care – love even – and relieve himself upon them.
The night ended full of tears, police, and broken noses, and two years later, found its way back to the Verein in song form.
This anecdote goes a long way toward defining Cheating on NY, our attempt to transform the pain and struggle of our Austrian experience, from the traffic light to the toilet to the hospital bed, into songs of great passion and greater humor.
Sascha Osaka
Initially seduced by imperial bling and the (von) Trapp family, we -- Renee Benson, a vocalist/actress/cage-fighter and Meaghan Burke, a cellist/singer/clown -- seduced each other musically on a traveling political-circus boat in Korneuburg in spring 2007. Several months later, when Renee returned for love of an ill-fated Austrian beau, we decided to blast the halls of Meaghan’s Konservatorium with the raucous theatrical blues that would become Cheating on New York.
Sadly, the first incarnation was short-lived (and marred by Toiletgate), but hit tunes such as "The Singlestress" and "Craigslist" stuck in everyone’s memories, and when Renee came back to Vienna – this time in spite of love – it was a matter of hours before we had taken to the streets with our songs.
Sascha Osaka
Since then, we have been continually amazed at how eagerly our Austrian public takes to being verarscht in song form. Whether singing about the perils of Viennese dogshit, shouting strings of obscenities in English and Wienerisch, or mocking Austrian manchildren to audiences largely composed of Austrian manchildren, we may cheat, but we never lie.
We bring you our reality in a rare period of silence: shortly after we began interviews for this program, Burke was afflicted by an exploded papercut-induced infection which left her one-handed; her expressive possibilities were reduced to a fat, bandaged middle finger (not a bad symbol for this pair).
Listen as we weather this crisis – and many others – with humor and chutzpe, and if you should feel inspired to some sort of artistic action, possibly involving toilets, just watch out – you, too, may become immortalized in song.
Love,
Meaghan and Renee