Fringe World favourite and punk cabaret queen Bernie Dieter brings her circus to town — early

Rather than wait for Fringe World early next year, festival favourite Bernie Dieter will bring her latest show to Perth next month.

From November 17 to December 13, the Melbourne-based queen of cabaret will host Bernie Dieter’s Berlin Underground in a “secret, pop-up cabaret club” Crown Perth.

The variety show will include performers boasting stints with Cirque du Soleil, Circa, La Soiree and Yummy — namely gender-bending aerialist Jarred Dewey, local drag queen Scarlet Adams, hula-hoop artist Lisa Lottie, acrobat Reuben DotDotDot and WA pole dancing champion Ruby Lai.

The Melbourne-based cast members will arrive in Perth with enough time to complete the 14-day quarantine well before opening night.

Berlin Underground will take over an abandoned nightclub at Crown — presumably the old EVE Nightclub.

Despite scoring a big hit at recent Fringe World festivals with her Little Death Club and late night version, Dieter said she would skip next year’s event in favour of going it alone.

“We decided to take the opportunity to come to Perth in November because we were so excited to design and bring to life our very own cabaret club,” she told The West Australian today.

“A place where all the punks, freaks and weirdos could come out and play and feel at home.

“We could create a longer, more immersive show here that really pushed the boundaries,” Dieter said.

“And I also think it’s quite lovely that my first, my last and actually my only shows of 2020 will have been in Perth.”

Dieter relocated from Berlin to Melbourne when COVID-19 began to spread through Europe but found themselves caught in the Victorian lockdown.

Like many arts professionals, the punk cabaret star had a year’s worth of touring swept away by the pandemic, including her first visit to Canada plus her annual pilgrimage to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“I miss the people,” Dieter said in August.

“I miss being on stage, that connection that we make in our crazy show, the energy and connection of other humans.”

In August, she said she was completely “overjoyed” when Fringe World announced it would return in 2021.

“That’s a real beacon of hope,” she said. “You guys in WA have done an amazing job of handling the situation and that was really happy news in a kind of dark, dark week of bad news.”

It’s quite lovely that my first, my last and actually my only shows of 2020 will have been in Perth.

Dieter said she was working on a new show to unveil in Perth and that she had hoped to unveil it at Fringe World.

“Nothing is 100 per cent set in stone but it would take a lot for us not to be there,” she said.

“We’re going to do everything we can to be there. We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Seems Perth fans will get to see Dieter’s new show sooner rather than later.

Tickets to Bernie Dieter’s Berlin Underground go on sale on October 12 via Ticketmaster.