“It’s like Sleep No More without dancing and a lot more booze.”

The Fringe Festival officially kicks off this Thursday, but the shows begin tonight with a preview of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret’s Do You Want A Cookie?

Last month, John Jarboe, artistic director of the Bearded Ladies, talked to Jill Horner of Comcast Newsmakers about the company’s 2018 Fringe Festival show. Touching on  the history of cabaret, he tells her about the company’s political grounding and how the show considers the role of art in activism: “You get to wander from room to room and encounter these brilliant cabaret performers that are doing this work of crossing between art and activism. You get to encounter them in various spaces and installations throughout the piece. There’s going to bar on every floor. It’s going to be a really fun event.”

“We are making Philadelphia a cabaret hub for the world,” he says. “We’re bringing fourteen artists from five different countries and three different states.”

Jarboe compares the Bearded Ladies’ performative journey through cabaret history to the famed New York City show Sleep No More, which similarly takes audience members on an experiential warehouse tour full of surprises and discovery.

Watch the full interview and get ready to bite your own poison cookie.

What: Do You Want A Cookie?
When: September 4, 6–9 + 12–16, 2018
Where: 448 North 10th Street
Cost: $10 – $35
Performed by The Bearded Ladies Cabaret
fringearts.com/8021

Photo by Plate 3 Photography