The Smoking Cabinet: A Festival of Early Burlesque and Cabaret Cinema (1894-1933)

SOHO 12 – 14 DECEMBER

The Smoking Cabinet presents an exotic array of films that epitomise the flair, eroticism and joie de vivre of burlesque, fin de siècle follies, the machine age, and modernist cabaret.

Following our sell out weekend of events at the Curzon Soho last year, The Smoking Cabinet: Festival of Early Cabaret and Burlesque Cinema (1894-1933) is back – hooray! – with a programme full of flirting, flappers and freaks.

Back at the Curzon for 12th-14th December, TSC is teaming up with the ever popular Midnight Movies to produce a most stunning opening night spectacle – a screening of Piccadilly (1929) – the story of Shosho (Anna May Wong) a nightclub dishwasher who rises through the ranks to star attraction at one of London’s hotspots. There will be live acts in the bar from 8:30pm. We will also revisit the mad cap antics of Coney Island in the early decades of the twentieth century, and the spirit of live popularist entertainment, by screening the Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton classic Coney Island (1917) with
additional seaside amusements and decor in the Curzon Soho bar.

We’ll take a peek into the glamour and the grit of show business with a salute to hardworkin’ showgals (and guys) in our On with the Dance programme;
finally rounding off the whole thing with a variety programme of marionettes, music hall stars and early erotica. The Smoking Cabinet would like to extend our thanks to sponsors Playful Promises and 10th digital Media.

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