Reflections of the past

Attending a performance in the Spiegeltent is like stepping into another era. Photo / Supplied

If walls and mirrors could talk, The Famous Spiegeltent, focal point of this year's Auckland Festival, could spin some fabulous tales.

Such as the time Marlene Dietrich sang Falling In Love Again on its stage, somewhere in 1930s Europe. It's a world away from Auckland's Aotea Square, but festival-goers might just get an echo of that glamour at the city's most beautiful venue over the next fortnight.Like some sort of canvas, wood and glass Tardis, the Spiegeltent has again landed in Auckland and will be here until March 22.

At the 2007 festival, it was erected at Britomart and proved such a hit, organisers were determined to bring it in again. This time it is in the centre of the CBD, the so-called Red Square, and it is shaping up as the natural heart and soul of the festival, a venue for a wide variety of shows and a late-night hangout for audiences and artists alike.

Festival ambassador Te Radar admits he intends to loiter around the tent at any opportunity and director David Malacari says it will be a visual signal to all Aucklanders that the festival is open for business. "The relocation to Red Square will put it right in people's faces. The tent was fantastic last time, but now we have tweaked it and relocated it, it will be very, very visible."

The Spiegeltent, built in 1920 in Belgium by master craftsmen Oscar Mols Dom and Loius Goor, is described as the most beautiful of the last of the Belgian "tents of mirrors" created during the early part of the 20th century. Constructed from wood, mirrors and canvas and luxuriously decorated with leaded glass, velvet and brocade, the tents were used as pavilions, travelling dance halls, bars and entertainment salons.

Attending a performance in the Spiegeltent is like stepping into another world and another era; the lights and bevelled mirrors, the circular teak dance floor, intimate booths and ornate bar, with a chandelier or trapeze dangling overhead, all conspire to banish the modern world entirely for a brief time. It's the sort of place you wish existed permanently in your own city. But the Spiegeltent leads a nomadic life, travelling from festivals and fairgrounds across Europe and beyond. It has been a regular at the Edinburgh and Brighton festivals.

At the latter, its after-hours bar and dance nights became the hottest ticket in town, providing an excuse for jaded clubbers to indulge in a bit of old-fashioned glamour. It has also been pitched at festivals in Montreal, Melbourne and Sydney, attracting adoring crowds everywhere. Some of Europe's greatest cabaret artists, musicians and circus burlesque performers, including Dietrich, have strutted their stuff in the Spiegeltent.

Over the next two weeks it will host a diverse programme, but the show which best complements this grande dame of "kabaret salons" is undoubtedly the sold-out La Clique. Described as an "inspired melange of cabaret, new burlesque, circus sideshow and contemporary vaudeville",

La Clique recreates most closely the original atmosphere of the Spiegeltent experience. Audience members are hand-picked to occupy the front row at performances to to ensuring wilting violets aren't overwhelmed by the sometimes wild and risque acts. The R18 classification is self-explanatory and the shows sold out faster than anything in the festival.

La Clique has also spawned a number of successful individual performers who appear elsewhere in this year's festival, including Camille O'Sullivan with her sultry versions of Nick Cave, Jacques Brel and Tom Waits songs, and Mikelangelo, appearing with his band The Black Sea Gentlemen at the Festival Club in Aotea Centre.

Meanwhile, acclaimed New Zealand actor/singer Jennifer Ward-Lealand might appear to be channelling the great Marlene Dietrich in her show Falling In Love Again at the Spiegeltent tonight, which includes a recreation of one of Dietrich's famous gowns. Ward-Lealand also has a new cabaret show at the Spiegeltent called The Look of Love: Evocative/Provocative, featuring songs by Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Jacques Brel and others.

Parisian chanteuse Caroline Nin presents songs in a similar vein, with a set of Edith Piaf classics in French, English and German while Berlin's answer to The White Stripes, brother and sister punk band Die Roten Punkte promise to lower the tone and splendidly raise the noise level.

Balkan Gypsy band Paprika Balkanicus will fill the tent with the sound of accordions, while a strong New Zealand line-up features Greg Johnson's Cocktail Club, The Mamaku Project, Anika Moa, SJD and the Topp Twins. Music critic Nick Bollinger will be chatting on the sofa with local musical legends Jordan Luck and Chris Knox in what promises to be two hilarious shows called Couch Time.

She may be pushing 90, but The Famous Spiegeltent is as sprightly and seductive as ever. Aucklanders who have experienced her charms will be slipping into their sequinned frocks, dusting down their black suits and sexy hats and escaping from work, weather and recession woes for a while. After all, this glamorous and nomadic old lady may not be back this way again for another two years.

* For more information about the Auckland Festival, which runs until March 22, go to www.aucklandfestival.co.nz.