Clowning scratch night
Clown Cabaret Scratch Night @ Roxy
Edinburgh-based clowning theatre companies Plutot la Vie and CloWnStePPing are hosting a scratch night of clowning this Saturday at Assembly Roxy.
Bec Phipps and Saras Feijoo at this spring’s event. Photo Richard Dyson
With 13 acts on the bill, this is the third of these cabaret-format events and aims to give the performers a chance to work on and develop ideas in front of an audience.
Based on the belief that clowning can only exist when a clown has an audience to appreciate their performance, the Clown Cabaret Scratch Nights give clowns that audience to interact with.
The night will be hosted by Melanie Jordan, the physical performer whose five star show Sanitise won a Fringe First in August, Tim Licata of Plutot la Vie, and Sáras Feijóo of CloWnStePPing.
Starting from Carl Reiner’s observation about the only way to know if something is funny being to “put it up there and see if people laugh,” the organisers point out that the type of clown and clowning they are interested in, is not just about laughter.
They add: “It’s also about performers taking the risk to share their vulnerability and humanity with an audience. When this happens, we see the beautifully human, ridiculous and profound dreams, aspirations, fantasies and absurd ways of looking at the world that we all share, but rarely admit.
“Our brief to performers presenting ideas is to take the idea of ‘clown’ in any direction they want. Selected from a wealth of high quality applications, we have been able to offer development time and feedback to the performers on the way to the Scratch Night.”
On the bill, each with ten minutes to play with, are Lucy Amsden, Alice Mary Cooper, Aron De Casmaker, Suzie Ferguson, Jusztina Hermann, Lucy McGreal, Ronan McMahon, Bec Phipps, Marcous Roche, Andrew Simpson, Cat Somerville, Fergus Dunnet and The Creative Martyrs.
Listing:
Clown Cabaret Scratch Night
Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU
Saturday 15 November 2014, 7.30pm.
Tickets £5 from Assembly Roxy website www.assemblyfestival.com and on the door.
About the organisers:
Plutôt la Vie is an Edinburgh based theatre company that creates innovative, physical & visual driven pieces of theatre, always which a touch of humour, because as it’s name states ‘above all, is life’. Website: http://plutotlavie.org.uk/
CloWnsTePPinG is created by Theatre Clown and multi-media artist, Sáras Feijóo, and is dedicated to the understanding, promotion and development of the art of clown. Website: http://www.clownstepping.com/
Melanie Jordan is an Edinburgh based theatre maker specialising in highly physical, visually exciting theatre with a clown flavour. Her one-woman show Sanitise won a Scotsman Fringe First Award in 2014. Website: http://melanie-jordan.weebly.com/
ENDS
