Carmen the Cabaret is a re-framing of Carmen the opera. It repositions Carmen as the subject rather than the object of her own story, allowing her to reveal truths about domestic violence and victim blaming that are embedded in the tale but hidden in plain sight – truths that resonate with all audiences, whether they are familiar with Carmen or not.

I conceived of a cabaret about Carmen after having the chance to perform the role with Opera Bites, who democratise and make opera accessible to everyone – by playing in venues like pubs, singing in English and condensing convoluted plots into digestible 90 minute shows.

Performing Carmen, I fell in love with her. She is funny, unapologetically herself and undeniably attractive. She likes sex, and has no self-loathing or regrets about her sexuality – a concept risqué enough when the opera was first performed in 1875, but is still somehow radical today.

But the framing of Carmen the opera, no matter how democratised it is, no matter what we do to make Carmen sympathetic, no matter how well we sing her, leads inexorably to her death at the hands of her possessive ex-lover, and her characterisation as a ‘femme fatale’, with many audiences blaming her for the ‘downfall’ of her lover, Don Jose. “She led him on and then dumped him, so she deserves to die.”

But why is she the ‘fatal woman’ when she’s the one who ends up dying?

To answer that question, I teamed up with my conspirator in chief, Daryl Wallis, and our friend and mentor, opera star Ghillian Sullivan, I created Carmen the Cabaret.

We’ve performed at the Adelaide Fringe, Smiths Alternative (Canberra), The Harold (Sydney), Newcastle Fringe (where we won an award for BEST ARTISTIC MERIT) the Robbie Burns Hotel (Wyndham) and the Bondi Pavilion Theatre.

If you’d like us to perform Carmen The Cabaret at your venue, get in touch!

“Hysterically funny, get wrenchingly emotional and forensically analytical.” (Sue Banks, audience member)