Macabre cabaret

Where does an aspiring accordionist with a flair for face painting and melodrama go for inspiration?

"When I started The Tiger Lillies, I looked at my contemporaries, and they would tend to look back 20 years and be inspired by The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or whomever. And I thought, why just go back 20 years, why not go back 100 years?" The Tiger Lillies founder and accordionist Martyn Jacques tells The Prague Post.

Borrowing artistic cues from Kurt Weill's Three Penny Opera and the darkest alleys of Sir Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, The Tiger Lillies were never destined for heavy rotation on MTV or the hit parade. Instead, Jacques' castrato vocals on albums such as 1996's The Brothel to the Cemetery and 1998's Low Life Lullabies would steer the band in directions more peculiar and dramatic.

In 1991, the Czech Republic may not have been the smartest or most lucrative destination for a nascent British band's first tour. But between gigs in Žižkov bars and sleeping on floors, The Tiger Lillies' accordion-driven sound gained them gigs, friends and fans across the country.

Over the years, The Tiger Lillies' recordings have sold moderately at best. But their onstage antics, involving Jacques' bizarre songs, Adrian Huge's makeshift percussion instruments and Adrian Stout's upright bass and musical saw have kept them busy as a live act. With their colorful stage shows and macabre albums, The Tiger Lillies have always had a knack for attracting a range of curious opportunities.

Shortly before his death in 1999, the New England writer and illustrator Edward Gorey became so enamored with The Tiger Lillies' 1998 album Shockheaded Peter that he sent the band a stockpile of his unpublished works. Teaming up with the Kronos Quartet, The Tiger Lillies would pay respect to the late master of grotesque humor in 2003 with a Grammy-nominated CD based on Gorey's poems titled The Gorey End.

Among the band's local fans here in Prague is Archa Theater's artistic director Ondřej Hrab. Earlier this year, Hrab invited The Tiger Lillies to work with Irish playwright Jocelyn Clarke and Czech theater director Jiří Havelka in creating a musical stage work titled Zde jsem člověkem!, or Here I Am Human!

Archa has an international reputation as the sort of flexible performance space directors refer to as a black box. But for the current production, Archa's set design has been painted shockingly white.

Describing Archa's clinical stage transformation, Stout says, "It's kind of a scientific setting, and we are in some kind of testing lab, and we are performing tests on the human body. There is a lot of medical experimentation, physical cleansing and things like that. So the Czech performers are dealing with what it is to be human and the ideal of humanity, and [The Tiger Lillies] are talking more about the inside of the body, the madness, the mind and the guts. So we are dealing with the guts, and they are dealing with the exterior. So there is a lot to do with hair, appearance and identity in the show, and we are there to reinforce it all and play these songs. And there is also something about body fluids."

After being prodded for more clues regarding their upcoming six-night run of performances, Jacques says, "Today they had a Japanese guy come in and give a 15-minute lecture on ritual suicide, which is somehow in the show."

As to what surprises to expect from the rhythm section, Stout confesses he brought his upright bass and musical saw, while drummer Huge happily adds, "I might play some rubber pigs."

"It's going to be weird," Jacques admits.

For those who enjoy their theater and music with the edgy cabaret The Tiger Lillies are well known for, the world premier of Here I Am Human! at Archa should be interesting to say the least. As Jacques says, "Hopefully, we will have a show that has a lot of genuine risk in it."

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at
features@praguepost.com