Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Reuben Kaye says cabaret has never been about staying in its lane — and this year’s program of music, theatre and late-night chaos proves it.
Lime Cordiale joining the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at Adelaide Cabaret Festival sounds like someone pulled three very different names out of a hat: An Australian indie-pop band. A full orchestra. A festival known for glitter, chaos, politics, torch songs and late-night weirdness.
But for Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s new Artistic Director Reuben Kaye, that mix is exactly the point. “Cabaret is the punk art form,” he says. “It’s always been the truth teller. It’s always had its middle finger up at the establishment.”
In other words, cabaret was never meant to sit neatly in one lane. And Lime Cordiale, as it turns out, have been chasing that same slightly unhinged live-show energy for years.
“We always tried to make people walk away from our shows going, ‘What the f*ck did I just see?’,” says Ollie Leimbach, who fronts the band with his brother Louis.
Reuben says “What the f*ck did I just see?” should be the title of next year’s festival – if only they’d let him swear.
Back to their nerd roots
For Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Lime Cordiale isn’t doing a standard gig. On 11 June, the band is playing with the full Adelaide Symphony Orchestra behind them – and for the Leimbach brothers, that’s closer to where they started than some fans might realise.
Both brothers grew up around classical music – their mum is a cellist and conductor – and Ollie studied clarinet at the Sydney Conservatorium while the band was already taking off.
Ollie jokingly describes the show as a return to the brothers’ “nerd roots” and says it’s very different to their usual live gig. “When they play with an orchestra, a lot of bands just put strings over the top and make everything really big,” he says. “But an orchestra already takes up all that sonic space.”
Instead, Lime Cordiale stripped parts of the band right back, rearranging songs so orchestral instruments take over melodies usually played on synth or guitar.
“There are songs where we don’t even play anything – we’re just singing and it’s the orchestra behind us,” Ollie says. “It’s a fully different experience.”
Where Lime Cordiale meets cabaret
That willingness to mess with format and expectations is exactly why Reuben wanted Lime Cordiale in this year’s program. “When some people hear ‘cabaret’, they think sparkly blazer on a cruise ship singing jazz standards,” he says. “That’s not my type of cabaret.”
Instead, he describes this year’s program as “balls to the wall, tits out, unashamedly queer, unashamedly political”.
“You look at artists now in this festival like Jordan Gray or PO PO MO CO. They all fall under the cabaret umbrella because they mix all the art forms. The way Lime Cordiale affects a room and changes a room’s energy feels so on the edge in a beautiful way,” he says.
For people who have never been to a cabaret performance or an orchestral concert before, Ollie says the show is designed to feel welcoming rather than intimidating. “You get a wine, you sit down, and there’s so much to look at. You don’t just have to look at Louis and myself.”
Navigating the Adelaide Cabaret Festival program
If Lime Cordiale is your way into Adelaide Cabaret Festival this year, Reuben has a few suggestions for where to go next.
For a big-voice, big-song option, Casey Donovan – This Is Me: The Amy Winehouse Special is probably the easiest next step for Lime Cordiale fans.
Then there’s Baylie Carson is Handsome(ish), an original cabaret by the South Australian-born West End star (made possible thanks to the Frank Ford Commission), which Reuben describes as a “soulful, but barnstorming, rip roaring examination of non-binary identity”.
“The festival can’t just be a display of excellence,” he says. “It also has to be the incubator for local talent.”
For something different, Reuben recommends Is That a Cock In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Here to Kill Me? by Jordan Gray, the BAFTA-winning trans comedian who got naked on live TV and built a show out of the backlash that followed: “All through incredible songs and stories.”
PO PO MO CO, meanwhile, are here for the people who want the full “what the f*ck did I just see?” experience with Best Bits. The Australian troupe of women, in Reuben’s words, “celebrate the female body and all of its absurdity”.
Another must-see is Maybelline Wasn’t Raised Like This, But She Is Born With It by Maybelline Celles Spinley San Juan, a Class of Cabaret graduate developing a show where her entire Filipino family roasts her while doing karaoke. “Sounds like my worst nightmare,” Reuben says. “But they’re all naturally gifted comedians. It’s going to be chaos in the best way.”
And Reuben himself is doing several shows across the festival, including late-night variety show The Kaye Hole, a Jesus Christ Superstar reunion with his tour castmates and the closing-night gala Reuben Kaye’s Happy Ending. “Bring your own towels,” he says of that last one.
It’s not the first time Reuben has played a key part in the festival. The Melbourne-raised cabaret artist has built much of his career through festivals here. “Adelaide’s given me so much of my career,” he says. “Being artistic director doesn’t just feel like a mantle of responsibility – it feels like a joyous, joyous gift to be able to give back to the city somehow.”
Reuben is passionate about making the festival accessible to everyone. “[Historically], cabaret is the art form of peasants and whores and penniless artists,” Reuben says. “Not the elite.”
This year’s Cabaret Festival, running from 4-21 June, has expanded its 30 Under 30 ticket program, with under-30s able to access tickets under $30 for most shows, alongside free talks, workshops and late-night events – many of them powered by volunteers behind the scenes. “No one has any money anymore,” Reuben says. “I can’t think why.”
Lime Cordiale with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra plays the Festival Theatre on 11 June as part of Adelaide Cabaret Festival, running from 4-21 June. Find the full program and 30 Under 30 tickets at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival website.
