MANITOWANING—The house was packed at Debajehmujig Creation Centre on Friday evening, August 16. Jan Kudelka had been invited to come and perform her one-woman show, Circus Gothic, for one night only. As well as performing in this work of art, Ms. Kudelka wrote the play based on an actual, lived experience. “Fifty years ago, right now, actually,” she said, following her performance.
The stage was starkly set—a chair, a table, a lower table she stood on as a platform, some props of hats, scarves and shirts hung here and there within easy reach. It recalled Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ and like the stage manager in ‘Our Town,’ Ms. Kudelka set the scene and instructed Sunny Osawabine to dim or bring up the lights at various intervals. But then Jan Kudelka became her cast of characters, one after another, in rapid succession, like ‘Our Town’ on speed, leaving her audience breathless.
Ms. Kudelka first led her audience into the clown world of Richard Pochinko, teacher of a more European style of clowning than that of the North American circus fare. She then set the scene for the rest of her story. It was the early ‘70s and a group of 28 Canadian student clowns, under Mr. Pochinko’s mentorship, joined up with the Royal Brothers Circus to tour the Maritimes. Their sophisticated clowning, delving into personalities through masks, rather than using the good-for-a-laugh slapstick clowning the circus was used to and preferred, made for a shaky start.
Over the course of an hour, the audience met 23 characters, including a disheartened elephant named Ellie, and a sly and conniving circus cat named Lump. Squeezed in between the characters, was a running commentary on the exhaustion brought on by constant breakdowns, violent storms, general equipment failure and events never going according to plan. Some situations and characters were amusing, but all were tinged with a depressing shade of reality which Ms. Kudelka painted so well, sometimes softly, sometimes with boisterous song, but always with great energy. Her lyrical prose had the audience laughing out loud one minute and wiping away tears a heartbeat later.
Eddie Rauls stoned ‘daredevil’ of the high wire. Or is that high wire only five feet off the ground? And is that zebra not a painted donkey? When the generator failed during yet another soaking rain, and all hell broke loose…the 28 clowns retreated to Halifax. But that was not the end of the story.
“Twenty-eight friggin’ clowns, 28 friggin’ Canadian Council Clowns listened while our leader, Richard, explained that six masks were all the direction we would need and that a silver chord connected each and every one of us to a central energy source in the universe that would always give us what we required. Really, Richard?”
All too soon, it was over. “Black out, Sunny,” Ms. Kudelka said. And the audience, in total darkness, left stunned by the final scene, was silent. “That’s the end,” came a voice in the dark and a lengthy applause filled the room.
Circus Gothic has been performed numerous times over the years, by high schools, universities, even in prisons. “I’ve seen 30 people do it, I’ve seen 20 people do it, I’ve seen five people do it,” the artist said, but she is the only one to attempt to do the show solo.
“The thing that’s so powerful about this show,” Jan Kudelka said when the show was over, “is that, when people see it, they go away and create themselves. It’s had a history of people who see the show, and then I hear years later, ‘I went home from your show and wrote a book of poetry.’ ‘I went home from your show and created a new piece of choreography.’ Or, ‘I’m in the theatre because I saw your show.’ It’s the power of storytelling,” she said. Yes, but perhaps it has something to do with the storyteller too.
by Margery Frisch
