PANTS! - The Best Show Ever & Three Others

My friend Alex Kipp, a blogger during last year’s festival and hopefully this year’s, said to me once that a clown relationship is based in need. Clowns need each other because they only exist on the stage for the benefit of an audience. They may see things offstage but they bring the impressions of those experiences onstage to share with the audience. A solo clown’s primary relationship is with the audience: they arrive on a stage to perform – to sing, to dance, to act, to soliloquize, to find a mate, to introduce a dog - and in the act of performing, a very pure set of reactions emerges – wants, needs, passions, obsessions – and the result is that a clown’s true personality is brought into the light.

A duo though brings with them a different set of circumstances. They come to the stage to perform as well but they are doing it together. They may carry with them an expertise in their given task but the joy in watching comes from not seeing them perform these actions but from the way they relate to the action and with each other doing them. We humans are not content to just perform. We want our efforts recognized. And anything that gets in the way of that stirs passions that bring out the best and the worst in us.

Tonight’s 7:30 p.m. slate at the Festival celebrated such relationships. It consists of four pieces from three different companies, each with a unique take on their relationships to the performance space and, more importantly, the courage to delve into the forces that can make life an unwieldy and beautiful mess. And funny. Very, very funny.


ME YMMIES Clown and Theatre Company’s Chalk It Up

As the lights go up, a clown appears from behind from behind a black flat. She looks around, searching for something but what? What does she seek? Looking down, she brightens and pulls out a piece of white chalk. She bends over, draws a box on the floor, and steps in the box and smiles. Stepping onto a stage floor without a box seriously stresses her out. She needs the order, the certainty of the space. Without it, she is very difficult to deal with.

There are three other clowns. They are giddy. They are clumsy. They are far more physical and chaotic. And the suffer from the exact same malady. One clown falls onto the floor, notices the lack of a chalk structure beneath him and screams, “CHALK!” Another clown with a piece of chalk runs to him and draws and outline - not unlike one which appears at a crime scene – around his fallen body and he breathes easier.

It turns out they have entered the space to give a presentation. The subject? I have no idea. Each time they begin to present, someone falls or trips or steps or pushes someone else into unstable territory and everyone rallies to place that person or push them further into the unknown.

Emily Newton, Monica Moreau, Adriana Chavez and Brian Kuwabara play the four clowns, (At least I think they were. There were no programs and I couldn’t find the actors afterwards to find out so I’m basing this information off the website) all of whom throw themselves into the action with giddy enthusiasm. My favorite part of the piece was the company’s inventive manipulation of their environment to compartmentalize their world and control each other. One clown, for example has a sneezing fit. Another clown tries to get her to stop sneezing by drawing a square on a black box and writing the word “FREEZE” above it. The clown then slams the square and the other clown immediately freezes mid-sneeze. Touches like this allows the company to enter into a battle to control the space. Tempers flare, feelings are hurt, and mayhem ensues. The game is fun but the tensions are better. It is not whether they win or lose but what’s beneath the game.


ME YMMIES Clown and Theatre Company’s 2 Chairs, 2 Clowns

2 clowns with chairs walk onto a stage. The music starts. The clowns dance. The music changes styles. The Clowns change their style. The music changes, the clowns change…on and on into sublime ridiculousness.

(The piece lasted roughly five minutes and the audience never stopped laughing. Megan Orwig and Erin Crites were the dancers. At least I think they were: Damn you Brick Theater and your lack of programs!…)


The CanCan Dew

Jenny Sargent and Aimee German play Birdie and Gladys, two mavericks who have worked together for 30 years as a famous Vaudeville Duo. Birdie speaks in a husky voice that reminded me of female James Cagney. Gladys speaks in a pip-squeaked nasal that sounds a lot like Gracie Allen. They both wear black outfits with gold sequins and spend the scene doing a song and dance routine reminiscent of the 1940’s.

But this performance is different from all others because Birdie is going through a crisis. She is tired of the old act and wants to tell another story through a different type of dance. The story is about a boy who wants to go to Pakistan and the way she was to dance is more interpretive. Gladys doesn’t want that though. She wants to keep things the way they are. They dance their routine but Birdie continually interrupts to develop her story. The more Birdie interrupts, the more nervous and impatient Galdys becomes until she finally pulls a gun. The result is both funny and tragic. These two have obviously done their homework.

The piece runs about seven minutes but I would have watched 60. The verbal and physical language they’ve created announces a history and a world that allows they play between the characters to include and play with the audience. It is a world rich with emotional and physical possibility. It’s cohesive enough to contain and swell with the crazy logic of its main characters. Sargent and German are patient with the material, letting the dance and the conflicts within develop at just the right pace so as not to force a single moment.


PANTS – The Best Show Ever

Creators Summer Shapiro and April Wagner call their clowns, Summer and April, International Ambassadors of Stupidity. They begin the show in their underwear and end the show fully clothed and then some. In between, they engage in a lettuce eating contest, blow up balloons, try to read letters, dance, fight in slow motion and in real time, yell, scream, negotiate, flirt with audience members, compete for attention, fall, bounce off the walls, chase each other with a broomstick, make up from their fighting and look for their pants.

Summer (the clown, not the character) is kind of intense. Her eyes are mostly wide open and her actions scream “LOOK AT ME!” She is the more controlling of the two and that desire for control makes the mayhem she creates all the more affecting.

April (see previous parenthetical phrase) is more subdued. She gets nervous reading a letter but if you knew the contents of the letter you’d totally understand. She is calm but don’t be fooled: she is just as capable of some serious eruptions.

The chemistry between the performers is strong. They compliment one another but individually possess enough rough edges to create a fair amount of friction. They compete for men, for attention, for space, for control, and aren’t afraid to voice their displeasure with one another. But underneath it all is love and a real need for one another that allows them to move beyond their disagreements. Most impressive though is that the need is full of sentiment without being sickly sweet. Their need is strong but never calls attention to itself.


2 Chairs, 2 Clowns/Chalk It Up had its one and only showing at The Festival on Sunday, September 17, 2008 at 8:30 p.m.

So did The CanCan Dew.

PANTS – The Best Show Ever will be playing on Friday, September 12, 2008 at 8:30 p.m. (on a double-bill with A Little Business Under the Big Top)