Welcome to Americlown

The Quasimondo's Americlown is kind of mind-blowing. A satire on American culture in clown form, it's funny. It's beautiful. It's ugly. It dichotomous. And it's easily one of the most sensational nights at the theatre in Milwaukee so far this season. 

Quasimondo's Brian Rott and company have done a remarkable job here. On one level, we have a very sophisticated and shockingly simple series of shorts that depict various ends of American life in classic clown format. That much is to be expected and some of what they're playing with here really IS very clever conceptually. Topics covered in startling clownic clarity include airport security, border security, racism, homelessness, alcoholism, the complex horrors of war and the use of torture. 

On another level entirely, the intimate theatrical experience finds the audience immersing themselves in a very rich and richly detailed culture. Just as American culture is a mishmashed mutation of many different immigrant cultures, so too are the clowns we're exposed to here. There are a variety of different temperaments and personalities found in the cast. What's more, the nature of the sketches freely mix some very, very heavy drama with some very light comedy. (Sometimes the two overlap in a pleasantly disorienting clash.) And as we're seeing clowns in a sophisticated series of shorts, they come across as something much more than comic facades. They are their own subspecies of human--one with its own culture that we're already intrinsically familiar with, but one that we've never seen quite exactly like this before. 

Here are some general impressions of some of the inhabitants of Americlown…

Ben Yela plays Yubert Yoaklee--a clown evidently suffering from several problems. The biggest? He's being interrogated by a very imposing clown he ultimately sympathizes with. It's a pretty dark piece with some brilliant bits of comedy. And I don't think that I've ever seen Stockholm syndrome illustrated with clowns before, so this was fascinating. As the short opens, he's wearing little more than a paper bag over his head. He's really vulnerable in that short and it takes an inspiring amount of courage to dive into a piece like that. 

Michael Davis plays Scary Clown--the one the rest of them can't stand. And after an intro like the one found in Slumber Party, it's not difficult to understand why. He's creepy. And kind of sinister. And Davis has the form own perfectly for that kind of clown. 

Liz Faraglia plays Dot. Dot's an immigrant to the U.S. In the course of the shorts, we see her have considerable difficulty making it past the border. Later on, we see her struggling to make a living while serving coffee in a cafe to racist, unsympathetic patrons. Faraglia has a sweet stage presence that ensures total sympathy without compromising on the depth of her characterization. Her training as a dancer adds to the physicality of her performance brilliantly. 

Jeff Kriesel plays a clown amplification of Col. Custer. He's the military clown who makes his strongest impression in a very detailed look at the pointless cycle of aggression in war that uses a clownic depiction of the Battle of Little Big Horn as a springboard for a streamlined allegory. (Yes, you can expect to see depictions of a few native Americlowns at the show as well.) It's a very sympathetic performance that nonetheless points out fundamental problems with the nature of war as a whole. In a particularly clever bit, he's teaching a couple of other clowns about the importance of firearm safety. He's leading a couple of them at a shooting range. It's very, very clever visual comedy. 

I loved Sarah Mellstrom as the mime clown Déjà Vu. She's got irresistibly expressive eyes. The make-up amplifies her facial expressions. As a result, even the slightest, subtlest change in mood or emotion is felt with a stunning intensity. Judging from her performance here ,the make-up only amplifies considerable talent that's already there. She plays out a very nuanced silent relationship with Drifty (see below) in Hoarder Clown--one of the most tender pieces in the play. At the end of the Tower of Babel  short at the end of the show, she was trying to express something directly to me in mime. (The clowns simultaneously roam the crowd at the end of that one trying to communicate with them in a variety of different languages. In retrospect, Déjà Vu may have been using ASL. (was she asking for a cigarette? Couldn't tell. It was kind of hypnotic watching her "speak.") Regardless of what she was trying to say to me, it was an experience that felt distinctly mystical. Not often you get that anywhere, even in live performance. 

Jessi Miller shows a great range of versatility as Brown Clown. On the one end of things, we see her as homeless alcoholic. It's kind of a heartbreaking look at misfortune. On the other end of things, she's playing a slick government agent who is harassing someone at an airport security check and then acting as a particularly slick interrogator. Miller's strength for comedy really shines here, though. There's an interesting moment where she's playing a clown being given a sobriety test that includes a juggling a three-ball cascade while standing precariously on somewhere over than firm ground. 

Kirk Thomsen plays Drifty. He's given some of the only direct, clear, intelligible English to speak over the course of the show. Throughout, Drifty's a sweet guy. He's something of a central character in the clown baseball game that plays out before the pre-intermission interrogation scene. As sophisticated as the satire got, it was kind of disappointing to see the baseball comedy not dive into comedy critical of ridiculous paler salaries and the use of performance enhancing drugs. I mean . . . this is a comedy that covers water boarding and drone strikes . . . can't we get a little bit more harsh on baseball? In any case, Drifty works well at the center of the physical comic chaos of that piece. 

(This list is by no means complete. There are quite a few other voices that fit into the Great Americlown Melting Pot.)

So I loved the show. I guess that's the take-away here. Once again, Quasimondo puts together a thoroughly unique and satisfying night at the theatre. 

The Quasimondo's Americlown runs through December 21st at the Milwaukee Fortress on 100 A East Pleasant Street. For ticket reservations, visit Quasimondo online.