The moment that the Four Clowns -- Sad (Alexis Jones), Mischievous (Kevin Klein), Nervous (Amir Levi), and Angry (Raymond Lee) -- appear on the bleak, black, and bare Long Beach Playhouse Studio stage, you realize there is nothing three-ring about this production. The makeup, costumes, and bulbous W.C. Fields noses may suggest ooohs and aaahs, purposeful mayhem, and comedy that is physical and verbal, situational and improv. At heart, though, the evening makes the audience feel like a last-call bartender who serves four misfits that ache to tell the story of what's it's really like to be a clown, which, as we learn, is nothing more than the ability to turn pain into laughter.
The humor is all over the place. An older brother, for instance, sabotages his sibling's first date -- his date exchanges a hand job for a seat and then, when the swain can't pay, she fellates the waiter. Depending on how seriously you take the Parental Advisory for Explicit Content tag, the episode is funny. What makes the evening unique is that Jeremy Aluma, who conceives and directs the evening, doesn't just string together a slew of salacious scenes -- for that seems to be the common theme; it also gets the most laughs - for the sake of shock and aaah, he circumscribes them within the context of a story of how the archetypal clowns forged their identities. In other words, this is not a circus, with a nonstop, sequential though unconnected array of bits and gags, this is a drama that focuses on the epic though squalid journey of our four heroes through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The result is as sobering as the voyage is outlandish.
Told with full speed ahead vignettes of every imaginable manner of dysfunction, the narrative is punctuated with physical humor (not just the expected punches and pratfalls but a javelin hurled into a coach's eye, a painful operation for cramps, a skeet shooting malfunction), audience-suggested riffs, and musical numbers (including a saucy little piece on AIDS, cancer and dying babies). It explodes in your face. Only afterwards, when you have a chance to reflect on -- and not just respond to -- what you've just seen do you realize that the trope of Sad, Mischievous, Nervous and Angry Clowns is the perfect way to present serious subject matter, namely, what goes into being human.
The Four Clowns obviously relish their roles. This enthusiasm makes their performances -- and the evening -- bristle, be it through movement, gesture, expression, or voice. It's easy to get caught up in their antics, to relate to one or more of them. You walk away with an appreciation of the cathartic effect that the production has on both the characters and on yourself.
Presented as a Monthy Python-esque, "And Now for Something Complete Different," the production embodies a collaboration between the 81-year-old Playhouse, which provides the venue, and the itinerant Alive Theatre, which provides the content. It's a boon for all concerned. Daring and energetic, weird and wonderful, the production makes you hope that the Playhouse can maintain its present momentum and makes me wonder what Elaine Herman thinks.
Performances are 8pm, Thu. - Sat. The show runs until Mar. 19. Tickets are $10. The Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St. For more info call 508-1788 or visit www.alivetheatre.org.
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Dominique Swain Veronika Vaeková Ciara Natalie Zea Diora Baird
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