Physical comedy must be painted with special brushes. They are called actors. Mine an actor’s raw materials, source their brightest colors, and allow them to splash across the stage to create a veritable painting in motion. Words seem too poor when dealing with emotions, ideas, values, sensations that are invisible. For a truly international theatre, the visual must tell the story. In this world of moving stage pictures, the power of sound effect and underscoring, music in general, is supremely important. Uncommon Comedy is a selection of four international performances from Belgium, Serbia, and Croatia, which employ mask, red-nose, movement, dance, music, and sound that speaks without words on a practically empty stage. Uncommon Comedy treats universal themes with rapid-fire action, image, and humor.
Black Petra
is a red-nose clown duo for young public, which tells a story of initiation. Two girls, best of friends, get sucked into the cyber world, and must make an arduous journey to save themselves. The original soundtrack fills this world of monsters and battles and super heroines with a symphony of fantastical sound.
The Heist
features four full masks created and played by a single actor, without objects, without set, making the soundscape primordial. The multi-instrumentalist on-stage synches the high whistle of darting off a cliff, the moment of frozen silence, the whoosh of falling, the bam splat of landing….all these things that speak volumes in pictorial language. This piece is a lone man’s struggle to survive the repercussions of a pandemic.
Obligation
is an allegory of the prevailing power of innocence, which mixes clown, dance, movement, and object manipulation. The live music on-stage enlarges the actor’s playing space and ignites the public’s imagination. This whimsical performance incites an interrogation of what one small person must do to combat catastrophe.
