Shakespeare the clown

MöcShplat is Big Art's Macbeth

by MICHEL THIBODEAU

The Fringe has always been a special place for clown acts (e.g. Gams on the Lam, Puppets Who Kill and, of course, Mump & Smoot). This year is no exception and Big Art Productions intends to fill the big shoes with their presentation of MöcShplat, a twisted interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

"The idea originally started off with the story of a man reading Macbeth in his study, with his dog lying at his feet and a huge trophy fish hanging on the wall," explains director Alain Goulem. "He drifts off to sleep and finds himself transplanted into the story itself, along with the dog and the fish. We quickly realized that this wasn't a feasible storyline, so we dropped it. However, we did keep the fish as a prop, so that all the swords and knives used in the play are represented by huge, stuffed fish."

Knowing the tragic circumstances surrounding any production of Macbeth, it may come as a surprise that the four group members have been involved with nine productions of the Scottish play. In MöcShplat, however, they've discarded most of the finery, including the costumes, the huge cast and, most importantly, the language.

Instead, the cast members invented their own language. "At first, each member was allowed only one word in his or her vocabulary, which was repeated, along with proper names. Only the inflection could be changed, along with body language," says Goulem. "Over time, different nonsensical words made it into the lexicon, mostly in onomatopoeic form. So you'll have a sentence like 'wattabattablattaMöcShplatwhoopwhoopwhoop.'" The final result is a highly refined gibberish that Goulem says audiences will quickly be able to decipher.

When asked about the inevitable comparison to Toronto's hugely popular ultra-violent clowns, Mump & Smoot, Goulem states, "I'm a huge fan and I can't deny that they were an influence." However, Goulem says Mump & Smoot were simply used as a starting block for Big Art's gibberish clown act: gone are the prosthetics (crucial to the M&S act), although the silly red noses, costumes, makeup and the stylized violence remain.

MöcShplat started with presentations at the Playwrights' Workshop "15" Project and made it onto the Centaur stage as part of the "X-treme Directions" project, a showcase for promising directors. Finishing touches were put together over the past few months, with the company knitting language and story elements together, along with improving their clowning techniques and adapting foam fish weaponry to stage combat. True to the origin of clowning, the characters are simply four hapless souls who react badly to various circumstances in their lives, although usually with the best intentions. In this case, they just happen to be interpreting Shakespeare's tale of greed and ambition.