City of Fools: Chicago’s Clown Theater Festival
Danzig is also the mastermind behind the first “City of Fools: Chicago’s Clown Theater Festival,” a three-weekend event that’s at least as risky as anything he does in 500 Clown Macbeth. But sitting through this year’s offerings it was hard not to wish every performer shared Danzig’s devotion and perfectionism. Of the four pieces I saw, only 500 Clown Macbeth felt fully formed and rehearsed.
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The plot is simple: three clowns attempt a low-budget, high-concept Macbeth, a production that puts them in some physical danger. The challenges they face will be familiar to anyone who knows Chicago’s non-Equity scene. The set looks cool but is extremely precarious–in one of the show’s running gags, one part after another collapses. And the performance is beset by every imaginable mishap: missed cues, lighting problems, “spectacular” moments that fall flat.
By the show’s end, all theatrical illusions have been destroyed. But If You Don’t Have Arms could use trimming: less than an hour, it still feels a good quarter hour too long.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Mariann Mayberry.
