SINGING INTO THE DARK
IS
'A CABARET OF GHOSTS'
IS
'A CABARET OF GHOSTS'
"Laughter and JAW-DROPPING physicality.
A MUST see."
-Theatre Jones, Dallas
FIVE STARS
EDFRINGE 2025
BROADWAY BABY
"EXTRAORDINARY! A POWERHOUSE,
FULL OF RAW, EMOTIONAL POWER"
"This solo show, written and performed by Bremner Fletcher Duthie with great skill and dexterity, comes to Edinburgh with a certain reputation for greatness – and it is a reputation that is extremely well deserved. Duthie’s performance is a powerhouse, full of raw emotional power and heart; he possesses a remarkably strong baritone voice which seldom actually needs any artificial amplification. Arguably, he does not just sing the songs, he performs them – fiercely, boldly ... This may be a story set some 90 years ago, in a chaos that we might hope is safely “in the past”, but Singing into the Dark remains a worryingly relevant warning ....This is an extraordinary solo show, and a performance that deserves to be seen
– a prime example of what the Fringe can bring to Edinburgh."
broadwaybaby.com, Edfringe 2025
FIVE STARS
"BREATHTAKING"
-Broadway Baby
A MUST see."
-Theatre Jones, Dallas
FIVE STARS
EDFRINGE 2025
BROADWAY BABY
"EXTRAORDINARY! A POWERHOUSE,
FULL OF RAW, EMOTIONAL POWER"
"This solo show, written and performed by Bremner Fletcher Duthie with great skill and dexterity, comes to Edinburgh with a certain reputation for greatness – and it is a reputation that is extremely well deserved. Duthie’s performance is a powerhouse, full of raw emotional power and heart; he possesses a remarkably strong baritone voice which seldom actually needs any artificial amplification. Arguably, he does not just sing the songs, he performs them – fiercely, boldly ... This may be a story set some 90 years ago, in a chaos that we might hope is safely “in the past”, but Singing into the Dark remains a worryingly relevant warning ....This is an extraordinary solo show, and a performance that deserves to be seen
– a prime example of what the Fringe can bring to Edinburgh."
broadwaybaby.com, Edfringe 2025
FIVE STARS
"BREATHTAKING"
-Broadway Baby
BUY TICKETS FOR EDFRINGE 2025
Aug 2 - 9th 6:10pm
Venue 152, Paradise at St Augustines
Performed around the world & winner of a dozen best-of-fest awards:
In a ruined theatre, an actor arrives to find his company has been arrested and only their torn costumes remain. Risking his life, he defiantly recreates the acts of the missing cabaret to show that celebration and humor are acts of resistance.
'Fringe theatre, nay theatre itself, DOESN'T get much BETTER'
CalgaryHerald.com
"Bremner Fletcher's EXTRAORDINARY solo show, is a MUST-SEE!. He’s a song-and-dance man, a clown with a mean streak and then a showgirl, breathlessly dedicated to giving the audience their money’s worth. That he does. it’s an INCREDIBLY PHYSICAL AND HIGH ENERGY PERFORMANCE... Between stories that elicit both LAUGHTER AND TERROR, simultaneously filled with hope and hopelessness, he sings in a haunting growl of a voice such songs as Noel Coward’s “20th Century Blues,” “Falling in Love Again,” "We're in the Money" and Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Knife.”
TheatreJones.com, Dallas
'STUNNING theatrical accomplishment'
InTheVue.com
In a ruined theatre, an actor arrives to find his company has been arrested and only their torn costumes remain. Risking his life, he defiantly recreates the acts of the missing cabaret to show that celebration and humor are acts of resistance.
'Fringe theatre, nay theatre itself, DOESN'T get much BETTER'
CalgaryHerald.com
"Bremner Fletcher's EXTRAORDINARY solo show, is a MUST-SEE!. He’s a song-and-dance man, a clown with a mean streak and then a showgirl, breathlessly dedicated to giving the audience their money’s worth. That he does. it’s an INCREDIBLY PHYSICAL AND HIGH ENERGY PERFORMANCE... Between stories that elicit both LAUGHTER AND TERROR, simultaneously filled with hope and hopelessness, he sings in a haunting growl of a voice such songs as Noel Coward’s “20th Century Blues,” “Falling in Love Again,” "We're in the Money" and Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Knife.”
TheatreJones.com, Dallas
'STUNNING theatrical accomplishment'
InTheVue.com
"an INCREDIBLE one-man show....brilliant acting."
- PBS America
"he will have you close to tears one moment and LAUGHING the next - an ABSOLUTE JOY to watch."
- New Orleans Defender Magazine
"Fletcher... is UTTERLY ARRESTING as the vanquished impresario of a ruined cabaret"
- Orlandotheatre.com
"This was the kind of adult entertainment I required tonight: a SEARING, LOVELY, BRUTAL, GLORIOUS, inventive show in the style of the notorious German cabarets.... Dear Lord, Fletcher has the EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY to master the details of singing, dancing, and physical movement, with overlays of wit, panic, fear, anger, and love.
THE SHOW IS SMASHING!. ...Fletcher's lone survivor comes back to the trashed stage and, through his grief and guilt, brings stories back to life. His voice was made for this, BEAUTIFUL AND POWERFUL. Every song hits the mark, often like a gut-punch ("Our Town is Burning), and sometimes with a horrific beauty (his "Mack the Knife" is stunning). THE PLACE DESERVES TO BE PACKED!"
Jon W Sparks, Theatre Critic, Memphis
"Fletcher’s vocal and acting chops are both INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE, covering everything from a crass comedy routine to mournful songs of loss and desperation. The result is an entire variety show of UNDENIABLE ENTERTAINMENT."
- Vue Magazine, Canada
- PBS America
"he will have you close to tears one moment and LAUGHING the next - an ABSOLUTE JOY to watch."
- New Orleans Defender Magazine
"Fletcher... is UTTERLY ARRESTING as the vanquished impresario of a ruined cabaret"
- Orlandotheatre.com
"This was the kind of adult entertainment I required tonight: a SEARING, LOVELY, BRUTAL, GLORIOUS, inventive show in the style of the notorious German cabarets.... Dear Lord, Fletcher has the EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY to master the details of singing, dancing, and physical movement, with overlays of wit, panic, fear, anger, and love.
THE SHOW IS SMASHING!. ...Fletcher's lone survivor comes back to the trashed stage and, through his grief and guilt, brings stories back to life. His voice was made for this, BEAUTIFUL AND POWERFUL. Every song hits the mark, often like a gut-punch ("Our Town is Burning), and sometimes with a horrific beauty (his "Mack the Knife" is stunning). THE PLACE DESERVES TO BE PACKED!"
Jon W Sparks, Theatre Critic, Memphis
"Fletcher’s vocal and acting chops are both INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE, covering everything from a crass comedy routine to mournful songs of loss and desperation. The result is an entire variety show of UNDENIABLE ENTERTAINMENT."
- Vue Magazine, Canada
"This show honestly has SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, from songs crooned masterfully to raunchy humour and sharp commentary..... In the end, I cannot stress enough how strong Fletcher is in this MASTERFULLY CONSTRUCTED play"
- London Fringe Review, Canada
"Bremner Fletcher, whose credits include a hit Kurt Weill cabaret, is THE REAL THING. He’s an intense and expert singer — and more than that, performer— of the ’30s repertoire,
in English, French, German, Yiddish. "
- Edmonton Sun, Canada
- London Fringe Review, Canada
"Bremner Fletcher, whose credits include a hit Kurt Weill cabaret, is THE REAL THING. He’s an intense and expert singer — and more than that, performer— of the ’30s repertoire,
in English, French, German, Yiddish. "
- Edmonton Sun, Canada
"Fletcher seamlessly intertwines dramatic dialogue with song and character, slipping in and out of personas, accents, and languages with a GRACE AND RHYTHM that feels like verbal ballet.... Fletcher’s performance simmers until it becomes HOT COALS of engrossing drama. Singing Into The Darkness is DARK AND BEAUTIFUL... "
— Richard Bergh
— Richard Bergh
"...it’s all really quite BEAUTIFUL TO BEHOLD. Shows like this don’t happen very often, folks."
- The Visitorium, Canada
"A GEM of a show"
- Orlando Sentinel
- The Visitorium, Canada
"A GEM of a show"
- Orlando Sentinel
" And my god, does he ever sing. Bremner's performance is JAW-DROPPING, my jaw literally dropped"
- View Magazine, Canada
"Bremner Fletcher has.... a voice of power and inner beauty that commands the whole space..... One feels like being seduced by the SHEER POWER AND BEAUTY of this performance"
- Musical Stages Magazine, UK
- View Magazine, Canada
"Bremner Fletcher has.... a voice of power and inner beauty that commands the whole space..... One feels like being seduced by the SHEER POWER AND BEAUTY of this performance"
- Musical Stages Magazine, UK
BUY TICKETS FOR EDFRINGE 2025
Aug 2 - 9th 6:10pm
Venue 152, Paradise at St Augustines
Edmonton Journal
"Bremner Fletcher Duthie’s one-man musical show, Singing Into The Darkness, 1933.... grows and blossoms into a truly mesmerizing piece of theatre. Shows with Holocaust/Nazi themes are never easy to pull off successfully. Done poorly, they can become cloying and cliché. Done well, they can be too dark and disturbing for audience comfort. But Fletcher works a little bit of dramatic magic, as the embittered Master of Ceremonies of a Weimar cabaret, hiding from the Nazi authorities in his abandoned theatre, as war rages. Most of the narrator’s former colleagues have already fallen victim to Hitler’s homicidal regime – some because they’re Jewish, others simply because they are “decadents” and rebels, outspoken artists who wouldn’t stay quiet.
Our M.C. narrator, ironically, has survived thus far by keeping his mouth shut. When we first meet him, he comes across as whiny and self-dramatizing and frankly not very likeable. Then, one by one, he brings each of his fallen comrades to life – the macho, sensual Spanish dancer, the offensively brilliant, and brilliantly offensive, Brooklyn stand-up comic, and the sexually generous torch singer, a women whose stage presence was so captivating, no one noticed she was actually quite ugly. Each tiny portrait comes to life with ferocious energy held in ferocious check.
And it’s all strung together with music from the 1930s, from Kurt Weill to Friedrich Holländer to Gershwin. Fletcher channels a classic cabaret singer’s voice - his authentically menacing rendition of Mack the Knife will sand-blast the Bobby Darrin treacle from your ears, and his Falling in Love Again, sung in both German and English, has just the right touch of Marlene Dietrich/Blue Angel gravel. But the most astonishing performance is when he assumes the persona of the cabaret’s lost chanteuse, the woman he loved, and sings a smoldering version of Stephen Sondheim’s wicked I Never Do Anything Twice. The song is totally ahistorical, of course- yet it feels exactly right.
The cleverest part of Fletcher’s show, though, is the way the script offers subtle, shadowy shout-outs to the political situation of today. Without ham-fistedly comparing the political leaders of the moment to Hitler, Fletcher quietly compels us to reflect on our own complicity in the security culture around us. His delicately subversive show finally asks us to ask ourselves this question – if we say nothing, if we stay silent, when we see civil liberties eroded in the name of preserving homeland security and moral values, how complicit are we in the evils of others? As our craven narrator/hero finally finds his courage and finds his voice, he challenges us to do the same."
Broadway Baby - FIVE STARS
"Equal parts monologue and cabaret act, Singing Into The Darkness follows a nameless ‘vanquished impresario’ of a Berlin nightclub, his makeup smeared and his costume trunk upended, as he relives the destruction of his sometime home, his friends, and his audiences: all slaughtered one-by-one, he tells us, by the incoming Nazi regime. We must flee to save ourselves, the MC tells us – he too must avoid the mistakes made by his departed friends and learn to ‘blend in’ with the new world order.
But first, he must honour those he has lost, and honour them he does; assuming the roles of song-and-dance man Rodrigo, Brooklyn-born clown Milton, and a departed female lover in turn, performing songs and routines in a series of melancholy elegies for their world gone by. ‘I Never Do Anything Twice’ is a particular highlight here, as is an extended stand-up sequence told in the throaty fuggedaboutit-ese of Milton, whose humor masks a barely contained rage at the injustice overtaking his adopted city.Written and performed with breathtaking stamina by Bremner Fletcher, '33 is compelling throughout. While at times the dialogue and acting borders on the self-consciously mannered (this is very much an actor's monologue) such stylisation nevertheless works well for the performative setting; we are never allowed to forget that we are, after all, in the world of the cabaret.
Other Fringe cabarets might be sexier, more glamorous, performed with more sequins and sparkle. But for sheer emotion, unvarnished and raw, Fletcher's evocation of a vanished world is more than worth the trek. It'd be worth a flight to Berlin."
"Bremner Fletcher Duthie’s one-man musical show, Singing Into The Darkness, 1933.... grows and blossoms into a truly mesmerizing piece of theatre. Shows with Holocaust/Nazi themes are never easy to pull off successfully. Done poorly, they can become cloying and cliché. Done well, they can be too dark and disturbing for audience comfort. But Fletcher works a little bit of dramatic magic, as the embittered Master of Ceremonies of a Weimar cabaret, hiding from the Nazi authorities in his abandoned theatre, as war rages. Most of the narrator’s former colleagues have already fallen victim to Hitler’s homicidal regime – some because they’re Jewish, others simply because they are “decadents” and rebels, outspoken artists who wouldn’t stay quiet.
Our M.C. narrator, ironically, has survived thus far by keeping his mouth shut. When we first meet him, he comes across as whiny and self-dramatizing and frankly not very likeable. Then, one by one, he brings each of his fallen comrades to life – the macho, sensual Spanish dancer, the offensively brilliant, and brilliantly offensive, Brooklyn stand-up comic, and the sexually generous torch singer, a women whose stage presence was so captivating, no one noticed she was actually quite ugly. Each tiny portrait comes to life with ferocious energy held in ferocious check.
And it’s all strung together with music from the 1930s, from Kurt Weill to Friedrich Holländer to Gershwin. Fletcher channels a classic cabaret singer’s voice - his authentically menacing rendition of Mack the Knife will sand-blast the Bobby Darrin treacle from your ears, and his Falling in Love Again, sung in both German and English, has just the right touch of Marlene Dietrich/Blue Angel gravel. But the most astonishing performance is when he assumes the persona of the cabaret’s lost chanteuse, the woman he loved, and sings a smoldering version of Stephen Sondheim’s wicked I Never Do Anything Twice. The song is totally ahistorical, of course- yet it feels exactly right.
The cleverest part of Fletcher’s show, though, is the way the script offers subtle, shadowy shout-outs to the political situation of today. Without ham-fistedly comparing the political leaders of the moment to Hitler, Fletcher quietly compels us to reflect on our own complicity in the security culture around us. His delicately subversive show finally asks us to ask ourselves this question – if we say nothing, if we stay silent, when we see civil liberties eroded in the name of preserving homeland security and moral values, how complicit are we in the evils of others? As our craven narrator/hero finally finds his courage and finds his voice, he challenges us to do the same."
Broadway Baby - FIVE STARS
"Equal parts monologue and cabaret act, Singing Into The Darkness follows a nameless ‘vanquished impresario’ of a Berlin nightclub, his makeup smeared and his costume trunk upended, as he relives the destruction of his sometime home, his friends, and his audiences: all slaughtered one-by-one, he tells us, by the incoming Nazi regime. We must flee to save ourselves, the MC tells us – he too must avoid the mistakes made by his departed friends and learn to ‘blend in’ with the new world order.
But first, he must honour those he has lost, and honour them he does; assuming the roles of song-and-dance man Rodrigo, Brooklyn-born clown Milton, and a departed female lover in turn, performing songs and routines in a series of melancholy elegies for their world gone by. ‘I Never Do Anything Twice’ is a particular highlight here, as is an extended stand-up sequence told in the throaty fuggedaboutit-ese of Milton, whose humor masks a barely contained rage at the injustice overtaking his adopted city.Written and performed with breathtaking stamina by Bremner Fletcher, '33 is compelling throughout. While at times the dialogue and acting borders on the self-consciously mannered (this is very much an actor's monologue) such stylisation nevertheless works well for the performative setting; we are never allowed to forget that we are, after all, in the world of the cabaret.
Other Fringe cabarets might be sexier, more glamorous, performed with more sequins and sparkle. But for sheer emotion, unvarnished and raw, Fletcher's evocation of a vanished world is more than worth the trek. It'd be worth a flight to Berlin."
Singing Into The Dark has been performed across North America and Europe to full houses and critical acclaim. It was invited to chosen to open the Theatre Festival in Armenia commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. It has recently toured in the Balkans and to the Ukraine, Germany, France and Eastern Europe. It has received Five Star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has been performed at festivals across North America .
Written and performed by Bremner Fletcher Duthie
with original direction by Dave Dawson
new direction by Joseph Furnari
costumes by Veronica Russel
dramaturgy by Caroline Russell-King and Rob Burns
original choreography by Julie Tomaino and Tracy Darin
song rights for Singing Into The Dark, 1933 secured by Della Music Publishing
Written and performed by Bremner Fletcher Duthie
with original direction by Dave Dawson
new direction by Joseph Furnari
costumes by Veronica Russel
dramaturgy by Caroline Russell-King and Rob Burns
original choreography by Julie Tomaino and Tracy Darin
song rights for Singing Into The Dark, 1933 secured by Della Music Publishing
Kabarett – a brief history
In Germany, between WWI and WWII, Kabarett was the most important creative place for musical and theatrical experimentation. Kabarett (as made popular in the musical ‘Cabaret’) was a form of musical theatre where the songs and skits often confronted and satirized the audience, instead of simply entertaining them. Satire, sex, scandal and humour flourished on stage, as song writers like Kurt Weill and Friedrich Hollaender created classic songs like ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘Falling in Love Again’. The stars of Kabarett were the brilliant Master of Ceremonies who mocked the political and social powers of the country. In the 1930’s, as the Nazis rose to power, they brutally suppressed the Kabaretts and those who dared to perform in them. Most of the MCs who did not escape ended their days in concentration camps.
In Germany, between WWI and WWII, Kabarett was the most important creative place for musical and theatrical experimentation. Kabarett (as made popular in the musical ‘Cabaret’) was a form of musical theatre where the songs and skits often confronted and satirized the audience, instead of simply entertaining them. Satire, sex, scandal and humour flourished on stage, as song writers like Kurt Weill and Friedrich Hollaender created classic songs like ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘Falling in Love Again’. The stars of Kabarett were the brilliant Master of Ceremonies who mocked the political and social powers of the country. In the 1930’s, as the Nazis rose to power, they brutally suppressed the Kabaretts and those who dared to perform in them. Most of the MCs who did not escape ended their days in concentration camps.
Singing Into The Dark, 1933 is loosely based on the fate of the Eldorado Club in Berlin. The Eldorado was featured in countless novels and contemporary guide books, including those by Christopher Isherwood. It featured regular performances by the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Claire Waldoff and the Weintraub Syncopators. When Herman Goering ordered the closure of the Berlin Kabaretts the Eldorado was raided and closed down. The Club was then taken over by the Nazis and used as a local headquarters.
BUY TICKETS FOR EDFRINGE 2025
Aug 2 - 9th 6:10pm
Venue 152, Paradise at St Augustines
Singing Into The Dark production pictures:
Performed and written by Bremner Fletcher Duthie, Singing into The Dark, 1933 speaks to the challenge of how to honor the memory of the disappeared. It asks the question: if the voices of those you love have been silenced, will you continue to speak up? It says we can choose to fight back with energy, humor, laughter, and life. Bremner says: “ Singing into The Dark is not only about Berlin in 1933. It is a show that could be set in any period, even today, where people struggle to speak up in the face of violence and oppression. "
Bremner says: " I hope to create work that is popular, accessible, politically relevant. I started creating Singing into The Dark when American politics were becoming increasingly toxic and headlines were filled with anger and hatred. That was when I first heard the remarkable song by Mordecai Gebertig, 'Unsrer Shtetl Brent' (Our Town is Burning). Mr. Gebertig wrote the song in 1936 following a Pogrom in a Polish village. The song speaks of the need and the difficulty of speaking out against oppression. Before his murder in 1942, Mr. Gebertig said he wanted this song to be an inspiration to all movements against repression. At the same time, I was reading about 1933, when Hitler took power, and how he ordered the brutal repression of theatres and cabarets across Germany. Many writers and performers were arrested and taken to the first concentration camps; others fled the country. And finally, I found the story of the Eldorado Cabaret in Berlin. When the Nazis raided the Eldorado, they took it over and transformed it into the local Nazi headquarters. This material wove itself into Singing to The Darkness, which is inspired by events in 1933, but speaks to repression and censorship right up to today. One of the monologues is a collage of a speech by a Hitler on freedom and culture and a speech on the same subject by an American MAGA activist. They fit together too easily. Finally, I wondered how one of those entertainers would pay tribute to his colleagues, and I decided he'd do with with irreverence, wit, humour and compassion.
Bremner says: " I hope to create work that is popular, accessible, politically relevant. I started creating Singing into The Dark when American politics were becoming increasingly toxic and headlines were filled with anger and hatred. That was when I first heard the remarkable song by Mordecai Gebertig, 'Unsrer Shtetl Brent' (Our Town is Burning). Mr. Gebertig wrote the song in 1936 following a Pogrom in a Polish village. The song speaks of the need and the difficulty of speaking out against oppression. Before his murder in 1942, Mr. Gebertig said he wanted this song to be an inspiration to all movements against repression. At the same time, I was reading about 1933, when Hitler took power, and how he ordered the brutal repression of theatres and cabarets across Germany. Many writers and performers were arrested and taken to the first concentration camps; others fled the country. And finally, I found the story of the Eldorado Cabaret in Berlin. When the Nazis raided the Eldorado, they took it over and transformed it into the local Nazi headquarters. This material wove itself into Singing to The Darkness, which is inspired by events in 1933, but speaks to repression and censorship right up to today. One of the monologues is a collage of a speech by a Hitler on freedom and culture and a speech on the same subject by an American MAGA activist. They fit together too easily. Finally, I wondered how one of those entertainers would pay tribute to his colleagues, and I decided he'd do with with irreverence, wit, humour and compassion.
BREMNER:
Bremner was born in New York and grew up in the USA and Canada. Singing is all he ever wanted to do. Every afternoon in New York, his family could hear him coming down the street as he sang his way home from school. He started singing with Punk Rock bands, moved on to studying Opera at McGill University in Montreal, and trained in contemporary vocal music at the 'Centre for New Opera' in Banff, Alberta. He has sung operatic roles by Mozart and avant-garde masterpieces like Maxwell Davies' 'Eight Songs for a Mad King'. Bremner has performed across North America and Europe in theatre and in concert, working with chamber ensembles, orchestras and jazz quartets. He currently lives in Montreal.
Over the past decade, Bremner has been exploring New Cabaret, creating performance pieces that are an emotional collage of ideas and songs. These pieces have been performed across North America and Europe to critical praise: "A stunning theatrical achievement"—Edmonton Journal. "Duthie brings passion, power and conviction to the songs"—The Stage. "Captivating performances of Kurt Weill's songs... beautifully delivered with power and emotion"—Edfringe Review. "Duthie is a baritone with operatic scope; instead of mere interludes, the songs become weapons”—See Magazine, Canada. “And my god, does he ever sing. Bremner's performance is jaw-dropping-my jaw literally dropped"—View Magazine.
His first recording was devoted to his own personal obsession, the extraordinary songs of Kurt Weill. Bremner recorded sparse, heartfelt versions of Weill's repertoire, which stretches from the streets of 1920's Berlin to the dazzling lights of Broadway. For his second CD, he asked the question "What is a jazz standard?". As an answer, Bremner created swinging arrangements of songs from his youth, from the Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Joni Mitchell and others, placing them side by side with more traditional jazz standards. His last recording is a 'concept album', an exploration of musical, emotional, sexual and political inspirations behind the idea of Cabaret, with new arrangements of songs by Weill, Hollaender, Noel Coward and Sondheim.
Bremner has performed in venues that vary from 3000 seat arenas in Tokyo, to improvised atelier-lofts in Paris and Edinburgh, to table-top stages in hard-drinking bars in the small Canadian towns along Lake Superior. He says that each had its own particular delights.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BREMNER'S PROJECTS - WWW.BREMNERSINGS.COM
Bremner was born in New York and grew up in the USA and Canada. Singing is all he ever wanted to do. Every afternoon in New York, his family could hear him coming down the street as he sang his way home from school. He started singing with Punk Rock bands, moved on to studying Opera at McGill University in Montreal, and trained in contemporary vocal music at the 'Centre for New Opera' in Banff, Alberta. He has sung operatic roles by Mozart and avant-garde masterpieces like Maxwell Davies' 'Eight Songs for a Mad King'. Bremner has performed across North America and Europe in theatre and in concert, working with chamber ensembles, orchestras and jazz quartets. He currently lives in Montreal.
Over the past decade, Bremner has been exploring New Cabaret, creating performance pieces that are an emotional collage of ideas and songs. These pieces have been performed across North America and Europe to critical praise: "A stunning theatrical achievement"—Edmonton Journal. "Duthie brings passion, power and conviction to the songs"—The Stage. "Captivating performances of Kurt Weill's songs... beautifully delivered with power and emotion"—Edfringe Review. "Duthie is a baritone with operatic scope; instead of mere interludes, the songs become weapons”—See Magazine, Canada. “And my god, does he ever sing. Bremner's performance is jaw-dropping-my jaw literally dropped"—View Magazine.
His first recording was devoted to his own personal obsession, the extraordinary songs of Kurt Weill. Bremner recorded sparse, heartfelt versions of Weill's repertoire, which stretches from the streets of 1920's Berlin to the dazzling lights of Broadway. For his second CD, he asked the question "What is a jazz standard?". As an answer, Bremner created swinging arrangements of songs from his youth, from the Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Joni Mitchell and others, placing them side by side with more traditional jazz standards. His last recording is a 'concept album', an exploration of musical, emotional, sexual and political inspirations behind the idea of Cabaret, with new arrangements of songs by Weill, Hollaender, Noel Coward and Sondheim.
Bremner has performed in venues that vary from 3000 seat arenas in Tokyo, to improvised atelier-lofts in Paris and Edinburgh, to table-top stages in hard-drinking bars in the small Canadian towns along Lake Superior. He says that each had its own particular delights.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BREMNER'S PROJECTS - WWW.BREMNERSINGS.COM