It’s been a while. Mainly because I wasn’t sure what play to approach for you this time. I spent a long time deciding, reading, choosing and in the end, settled on a play you very probably don’t even know. But that needn’t matter, this series should be about discovering new things, as well as learning about some old.
Today, I’m talking about Matei Vișniec’s “Old Clown Wanted”. It’s a relatively new play, definitely newer than the plays we’ve looked at so far in the series, but it is a child of Pirandello and Beckett and Ionesco and all those other absurd masters.
Matei Vișniec, for those of you who don’t know him, is a big playwright in my country and a well respected name in the European literary world. Reading up on him a little, I see we share a birthday - 29th of January, albeit some forty three years apart – as well as a birthplace. Born in 1956 in Romania, Vișniec is mostly known for his writings in the French language (he lives in France at the moment and has, for some time).
Actually, the play we’re talking about today was written around the time he moved to France, from what I understand.
“Old Clown Wanted” is a play that has followed me like a guiding star when I crossed Europe from East to West, when I moved from one cultural space to another, from a language to another, in search of a new identity.
I wasn’t really sure about writing this post, as it’s a pretty difficult play, but reading the author’s blog on the subject convinced me. I just enjoyed his writing so much.
Right, back to the play. “Old Clown Wanted” tells the story of three aged clowns, Nicollo, Filippo and Peppino, who meet again in front of a large door. They’ve all come to try and demonstrate their talent and skills, in hopes of being hired with the circus.
The three are old friends, they talk of people they knew long ago, they joke, they argue. They each perform their own little routine in front of the two other clowns. Routines that are old and tired, much like the clowns themselves. They work hard to prove, both to the others and to themselves, that they are still young enough, that they can still do the job, be funny, stay relevant.
And of course, this struggle is as tragic as it is funny, at times.
The last one to “show his skill” is Peppino, who fakes his own death, much to the dismay of the other two clowns, who try everything to bring him back. When they discover it was all just a big trick, they begin hitting the clown and end up killing him for real.
The play ends in a sober mood and I remember sitting in the audience at this play, sometime last year, wondering if he’d really died. And I’m not one who gets confused easily.
The two remaining clowns-turned-murderers exchange a conspiratorial glance and proceed to drag Peppino’s body behind the big door, where we find the corpse of another clown, with his own little tattered suitcase (like the ones the characters themselves carry throughout the play).
According to the author himself, the play was largely inspired by Federico Fellini’s lighthearted semi- documentary “The Clowns” in which Fellini follows some old, ill, even insane clowns. It’s also the result of Vișniec’s childhood fascination with clowns and the circus in general. As he tells it, it was always a special feeling when the circus caravan came to his town.
Of all the circus artists, I loved the clowns the most. They were, for me, some sublime messengers, that made us laugh, while sending thousands of simple, yet touching messages. That life is both laughter and crying, that inner freedom can, at some point, break the walls of an external prison.
It’s a story about being old and tired, even though the author wasn’t technically old at the time. He explains the stagnant feeling that took over him, how tired he was of living thirty years under communism and the feeling of helplessness at what was happening with his country.
As he tells it, he wrote “Old Clown Wanted” at a crossroads in his own career, where he was tired and needed to vent in just such a biting commentary.
Mostly, it’s a story about life and about a terrible wait that exists in us all. We can all identify with the three old clowns, waiting at the door, doing their best to prove their worth, that they still mean something to this world. Though as the play progresses, we understand that what they’re not actually waiting for the door to open and the audition to begin, but rather for their own deaths.
Anyone can be Peppino. There are thousands of Peppino. Everyone is Peppino.
I think this line from the play pretty much tells us everything we need to know – that we are all old clowns, at some point. Not necessarily when we’re old. As Vișniec himself points out, the play has been staged in many different ways and not just by old people. Both young actors and young directors have taken on the challenge, which just goes to show that the feeling of tiredness inherent in the play is not something unique to old people. The playwright himself was only thirty years old when he wrote “Old Clown Wanted”.
It’s a play about the very essence of humanity. It’s about losing hope. In yourself, as well as the world around. It’s about being lonely and scared and tired. Which is why I think it’s done so well, both in Romania and in many other countries across the globe.
Excerpts from the play can be found around the Internet and I highly encourage you to check them out. Better yet, if the play is on at one of your local theaters, do consider seeing it. It comes with a strong, resounding message and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
Have you seen “Old Clown Wanted”?
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