Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Clowns usually elicit a range of emotional responses from their audiences – laughter, warm nostalgia and sometimes fear – it’s all in their job description. However, in Forced Entertainment’s new show, Out of Order, the troupe of clowns, dressed in matching burgundy suits and smeared white face paint, are plunged into the depths of chaos and confusion. Drawing on some of the traditional elements of clowning, Forced Entertainment have devised a show which breaks, twists and subverts our expectation of clowning. This is clowning. Forced Entertainment style.
Out of Order is different from any of the company’s previous work in that it uses no spoken word. Six straight-faced clowns find themselves on a minimalist stage, furnished only with a wooden table and a set of chairs. Each clown takes a seat before they quickly find themselves embroiled in a series of fights, either as the clown picking the fight or as the one trying the break up the fight. It’s all very physical – overturning tables and lobbing of chairs – clutching, grappling and sweaty – and it is mesmerisingly exhausting to watch. The heavy breathing and dripping faces are real; Forced Entertainment aren’t a young company and each spat tires them. Stuck in the cyclical ritual of the game, they continue…
This show has no spoken content, and as with most of Forced Entertainment’s work, the audience is encouraged to search for their own meaning from what they see on stage. Adding drollness, the music propels the performance along; the chorus of ‘Someone’s Gonna Cry’ by Val Martinez is repeated as the soundtrack to each new fight, while later in the show the sound of Strauss’ familiar waltz is accompanied more balletic, though still as aggressive, episodes of movement. Bursts of energy and frustration are ground down by uncomfortable moments of stillness and anticlimax.
Running at 90 minutes, Out Of Order can easily be read as a metaphor for our time – the toing and froing of Brexit negotiations, political buffoonery and follow-the-leader mass consumerism. Most symbolically, after all of the mayhem and disarray, the performance ends with the slap of a limp balloon on an abandoned stage.
What was most encouraging was the number of young students in the audience on the night that I attended. Many of which were on their feet to give a standing ovation at the end of the performance. Inspiring and hopeful.
-Kristy Stott
Out of Order runs at HOME until Friday 15 November 2019. There is a post-show discussion with Tim Etchells on Thursday 14 November.