Here we lay out the content of the Cabaret with links to explore each original further.
'Strange'
Finlay (2020)
We fell in love with this haunting track, released just as the lockdown commenced. It seemed the perfect way to open the show. With thanks to Globetown Records for permission.
It perhaps seems strange to start a piece that draws from the lessons of history with a poem that points out history's weaknesses.
But we like to be contrary.
John Taylor was not only a prolific poet, but a Thames Ferryman. Just like an Uber driver today, we thought that this occupation probably gave him a particular insight into London during the plague.
A Journal of the Plague Year
Daniel Defoe (1722)
As we move further back in time, human behaviour seems strangely unchanged in similar circumstances.
Angels in America
Tony Kushner (1992)
'Angels' is one of the most extraordinary pieces of writing for the modern stage. Utterly epic, it not only spans about 8 hours of playing time, but moves between the heavenly and the profane, the real and the mythical and the straight, gay and trans communities of the time. An unexpectedly huge hit both in America and in its original production at The National Theatre, it brought the experience of those living with HIV further out into the open. The story of Roy Cohn and his diagnosis is a true one, leaving him to be shunned by political society, including a young Donald Trump. It really was a social death.
'The Lovesick Bacillus'
This utterly and charmingly bonkers song about Microbes came from a book of Victorian music called Nine Medical Songs by Blumfeld, Ransome, Chadborn, published in 1895.
As Kirsten Shepherd Barr explains in her short talk within the Contagion Cabaret, this play - now almost lost to posterity - was a huge and controversial hit in its time - dealing openly with the topic of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. It later became both a novel and, as you see below, a film.
'The Herpes Tango'
Fascinating Aida (1997)
The ever-brilliant comedy-music trio deliver the goods again!With thanks to Fascinating Aida and Dillie Keane for kind permission.
A haunting and tender passage from the great post-apocalyptic novel of our times. The narrator describes the father and son, who are apparently amongst a handful of survivors from some great cataclysm, discover an underground bunker. The sense of preparations made, but never acted upon, is powerfully emotional.
'Hush Hush Hush'
Paula Cole (1996)
This beautiful song was written about a father seeing his young HIV-afflicted son in his hospital bed. But we felt the lyrics and sentiment carried further to many other situations where family members see (or are prevented from seeing) their sick loved ones. With thanks to Paula Cole and her management for permission.
This beautiful play deals with the extraordinary story of Eyam, a small village in Derbyshire. It was infected with the plague due to flea-infested fabrics brought from London. The villagers, led by their two Rectors, made the courageous decision to protect others by self-quarantining the village, resulting in more deaths of their friends and neighbours.
Dr Nicola Fawcett, who speaks during the Contagion Cabaret of the strengths and weaknesses of the Immunity Passport idea, has shared some additional resources illustrating the mathematics and the science behind her arguments.
Find out about the World Health Organisation's stance on ‘immunity passports' here. An in-depth commentary on immunity passports in medical journal The Lancet. Find two pieces discussing current tests available, and the maths behind why “95% accuracy” can be wrong half the time here and here.
