The Planet of Clowns in the Constellation of the Sun
Magdalena Hasiuk
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-5256
Abstract
The article analyses the varied functions and ways of application of the clown and circus motifs in the more than 54-year-long history of the Théâtre du Soleil. Clowns have passed into the theatre of Ariane Mnouchkine from the “sources” of her theatre inspiration: from Oriental forms, commedia dell’arte, and fair spectacles, from the pedagogic practice of Jacques Lecoq as well as from the space of the abandoned Montmartre (former Médano) circus, where the Thèâtre du Soleil, homeless back then, set the action of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968). In later productions, clowns reappeared as constitutive elements of the world represented on stage in two guises: as jesters in glimpses of the revolutionary cabaret in Mephisto (1979) and as a kind of buffer introducing new qualities of experience in the instalments of the Shakespearean cycle. In each instance, the personages of clowns in performances of the Théâtre du Soleil broaden the dimensions of the world represented on stage; revealing its complexity and opacity, they become signs of pure theatricality and expose to view numerous paradoxes that can be seen at the individual, social, and transcendent level.
Keywords:
Ariane Mnouchkine, Theatre du Soleil, clown, theatre aesthietics, ShakespeareReferences
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Authors
Magdalena HasiukInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-5256
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