FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2006
PLEASE ADD TO LISTINGS THROUGH MARCH 12

PURIM CABARET & “Jewish Mardi Gras” MASQUERADE

Sunday, March 12 @ Lula Lounge

$12 with a costume
$15 without
Doors @ 7pm Show @ 8pm
Guaranteed seating with dinner reservations
1585 Dundas Street West
(1 1/2 blocks west of Dufferin)
for more information or dinner reservations (416) 588-0307

Toronto Jazz/World musician David Buchbinder (just nominated for his fourth JUNO) and bellydance queen and actor Roula Said (recently featured in the film Sabah) have joined up with Lula Loung and a host of amazing performers to present their very wild, very downtown Middle Eastern flavoured Purim Cabaret.

Purim is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the saving of a people through the power of a woman, her uncle, and a lot of backroom intrigues and disguises. Peopled by such colorful characters as the powerful but thick King Ahashverosh, the beautiful and quick Queen Esther, her Uncle Mordechai, the defiant Queen Vashti, and, most notably, the perfectly evil Haman, and full of reverses and surprise, the story of Purim is the perfectly theatrical holiday. For centuries it has been the jumping off point for wild celebrations, the amazing Purimshpil (or Purim play featuring the dispossessed mocking the powerful), drunken revelry (a Rabbinic injunction), crossdressing, raucous synagogue readings of the story of Purim (the Megillat Esther), and exquisite masquerades. It is a topsy-turvy holiday where pretty much everything gets turned upside down. A kind of Jewish Mardis Gras that is perfect for various interpretations and re-imaginings.

Building on their successful Lula series Feast of the East, David & Roula and their compatriots have fashioned an evening full of colour, revelry, humour and performance, which will be put over the top by the pleasure of participation (yours!). Featuring music (by David, Dave Wall, Arab-Jewish-Jazz fusion band Medina — DB, Ernie Tollar, Rick Shadrach Lazar and Geoff Young), bellydance (by Roula, Hannan, and Ioana), spoken word, theatrics and puppetry (by internationally acclaimed author Michael Wex, actor Marilla Wex, actor/puppeteer Noah Kenneally), David & Roula’s Purim Cabaret will also feature dance contests, participatory processionals, crossdressing bellydancers and much more, to be announced in the next few weeks.

To encourage the full experience of Purim all revelers arriving in (a real) costume will pay the discounted ticket price of $12. Stay tuned to Lula’s & David’s websites for info on the main characters to give you inspiration for your costume creations.

And, just so you know….you don’t have to be Jewish!