Rage Against Time

The death Trolls were after the clown but clowns are eternal.

I was sixty. I thought it must be time to retire from clowning. But No – the clowns were not going to hang in the closet. Like Puff the Magic Dragon, Agnes the clown was not going to quit anytime soon.

Rage Against Time

I wrote this show for a GirlsGirlsGirls fundraiser and later performed it at a few cabarets. It was satisfying to express my feelings and fears about growing older.

Synopsis:

The Troll comes on in the dark with her iphone on flashlight looking for someone with a black hat and red nose. The Troll goes into the audience looking and then sits down to wait. Agnes comes on to music “Take Your Power Back” by Rage Against the Machine. Agnes gives a few words about life and superstitions in her family. She quotes “Rage Against the Machine” and gets the audience to chant “Take your power back.”  At this point she hears 3 honks in the audience and knows that her time has come. The Troll comes from the audience and chases her off the stage through the audience to a continuation of the music while the lights dim. When Agnes yells “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” All goes to black and all the audience can see is the troll’s flashlight. END

Short shot:

A green creature searches for Agnes the Clown. Family superstition says he is coming to take Agnes to the other side. Must she leave the merry-go-round of time for the circus in the sky? Is it too late for Agnes to take her power back?

Agnes. Photographer Leif Norman

Rage Against the Time Machine

Hello. I’m Agnes and the lovely ladies at GirlsGirlsGirls have given me 3-5 minutes to say something. In my family the superstition is that when you’re going to die a horn will blow three times and then death dressed in green will come to lead you to the circus in the sky. When that day comes for me, I will no longer recharge, my battery will be worn out. My body will be thrown on a heap like all our burnt-out computers and phones.

But I am not a computer. I am not an iphone. Who says I am better than an earthworm but not as good as Sophia Loren? (Google it.) I know that we need each other. Loneliness is a terrible disease. Do we expect ourselves to be without emotions, without grief or loss like our computers?

I will not go off gently into the eternal merry-go-round of time. I am Queen of the Castle, so much better than all those dirty rascals. I am not just another iphone.

To quote, Rage Against the Machine:

Holes in our spirit causin' tears and fears
One-sided stories for years and years and years
I'm inferior? Who's inferior?
Yeah, we need to check the interior
Of the system that cares about only one culture
And that is why
We gotta take the power back

Yeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power back

(Honking)

Hark, I hear the honking. My time is up. (Honking) No, I will not go.

Maybe I’ll come back as a gnome or a rock star. Maybe I’ll get to meet the big clown in the sky…...

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

(Agnes runs off the stage into the darkness with the Trolls chasing her and honking.)

END

Agnes. Photographer: Leif Norman

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Popcorn Philosophy

The clown looked on as a circus artist is different from the clown from a theatrical perspective. Of course, but I have never thoroughly thought about how discipline changes the concept of a figure. I know different disciplines use the same words or language to mean different things but I didn’t know that was so with a clown figure.

Here, briefly is what I have noticed.

The theatre works with character and spoken words. There is always a physical element but it is at service of the story and the characters who are different from each other and this difference creates the dramatic tension.

Musical theatre still has distinct characters, many of whom are in chorus and their distinguishing features are not necessarily fundamental to the plot. It also has choreographed movement in which the figures move as a team and make room for dance.

Circus performers often move as a team and have generic characters. The tightrope walker, the acrobat, the juggler. The individual loses his identity to the physical skill. He/she may excel and be the star but in terms of physical identity and costume is still part of a group.

Dance is easily incorporated into circus because it is non-verbal and the performers focus on athletic skills. Music is usually a component of both. Music is sometimes used in theatre, but not usually through the whole production, unless it is musical theatre. In movies, music is a moving force.

With the disappearance of the Ringmaster, I have been comparing Contemporary Circus to theatre and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me because in circus the characters are not distinct and there is no plot. However, when looked at from a dance perspective, I can see the blend of genres and the performance itself makes more sense because expectations change.

I don’t expect dance to necessarily have a story. I don’t expect to understand dance in the same way that I understand theatre. Understanding comes from a more conceptual place for dance, whereas theatre demands a thinking space. Circus is multi-dimensional and one can expect virtuosity and spectacle.

Where does this leave the clown? The clown is a distinct character with a distinct costume, depending on difference to motivate their play. Clowns are rarely included in dance, unless it is a clown dance or possibly eccentric dancing. In theatre, clowns can be in the fabric of a play, like the fools in Shakespeare or as the focus of a production. Commedia dell’arte is theatrical and seeds clowns in its society of delineated characters. Clowns in traditional circus were the ones who contrasted the performers virtuosity by being inept and sewed together the fabric of the circus by performing through the transitions of one act to another. A clown’s presence seems most effective when it is in contrast or in relation to another character or audience. Of course, the ringmaster is the perfect foil for the clown.

As circus changes and artistic disciplines combine and grow, how do we recognise the clown? Is the clown still present? Has the clown consciousness become threatening to artistic virtuosity?

The Ringmaster was generally the only one who talked in circus. Because of the size of the audience, the acoustics of tents, the languages of different places, the Ringmaster was the one who talked. The clown would have interchanges with him which would often turn into physical gags. With the Cirque du Soleil and international travelling spoken language disappeared from the circus. Even the music is tonal with occasional repeated words like “Allegria”. The clown becomes silent. Not necessarily a mime clown, but a physical silent clown often with sound effects. Also, the clown becomes for all ages – unless it’s an adult circus. It’s hard to compare because there are variations on everything, but we need a framework for understanding and gaining identity.

The mime clown Deburau who played in the theatres depended on a focused audience because he was silent. Barrault, in the film Les Enfants du Paradis plays the mime clown and the camera gives us the focus of a small audience. The circus clown needs to fill the space and be understood by thousands of people.

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Odds & Ends

Sometimes it seems that money is sacred, the ultimate power that is to be bowed down to and sacrificed to – And what is money? A symbolic representation of what and who has value in our society. It is a piece of paper, it is a number on a machine, it is a piece of metal in our hand and yet we give it value. It governs where we live, whether or not we eat, the clothes that we wear…

I have decided to keep silent. I value silence. I value the wordless meaning of my life. And when I undo the bridge of silence anger flows like a torrent of water ready to drown, to sweep away the valued reality that I have so carefully built in my life. It washes over me and destroys everything I hold sacred. To be silent and still. To bow my head to a reality that I don’t believe in.

Who is certain of what is real? Is life not always challenging us to redefine, to question, to entertain other possibilities. Why is there room for only one approach, one reality, one interpretation? We know this is not true. Is it fear that calcifies us, fear of losing what we hold sacred to someone who doesn’t believe? Does this mean that we have to take it from others? Is it anger that our freedom has been destroyed in ourselves that we must destroy others? “Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.” What do we hold sacred?

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References

Selections from: Rage Against the Machine: Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Tom Morello / Timothy Commerford / Zack M De La Rocha / Brad J Wilk

Take the Power Back lyrics © Retribution Music.