Clown Pieces - BOOK I
Chapter IV: The Princess who Fed on Gems
Chapter VI: The Provider of Warmth and Gem
(Click on a Chapter to read, or watch concept videos)
CHARACTERS
(Chapter Index)
 The Old Weaver |
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 The Cutter (The Creepy Clown) |
 The Princess who Fed on Gems |
 The Sad Writer |
 The Provider of Warmth and Gem 1(The Creature) |
 The Provider of Warmth and Gem 2(The Creature) |
 The Match Girl |
HOW THIS PLAY GOES
This piece uses an excessive mixture of clownery, object puppetry, masks and magic.
Except a few elements, the overall tone of the theatre is dark and desolate.
ALL PERFORMERS are magicians.
Another key element of this piece is music.
The music goes on and on in endless loops.
The ideal music is something that feels restless with strong downbeats.
Here, I will use Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" just as an example.
The composer/designer can have all the liberty in the creation or selection of music.
There are six areas in the space where performers occupy.
At the beginning of the play, the whole space is pitch-dark.
An area is lit, under which we see a scene.
Light dims, another area is lit. We see the another scene.
The scenes proceed rapidly without pauses,
or sometimes they happen simultaneously,
under endless loops of music.
That's how the play goes.
BOOK I - THE MAKING OF THE WORLD
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Chapter I: The Old Weaver
Lights.
An old woman enters and sits in a confinement in a high above tower with her rickety wooden loom.
She smiles at her audience. We see her wrinkles.
She winds up her loom.
She turns the spinning wheel.
Music starts as she vehemently steps on the pedal.
She keeps weaving,
weaving,
weaving.
An unending sheet of white substance keeps being generated,
generated,
generated,
generated,
flying into midair.
Light dims.
End of Chapter I (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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Chapter II: The Cutter
Lights.
A creepy clown in big bright baggy costume with a pair of giant scissors smiles coldly at the audience.
He starts cutting up the cloth/paper-like substance endlessly purveyed by the (now) unseen old woman, into pieces of paper, creating a messy and rhapsodic snowstorm.
He cuts,
cuts,
cuts,
cuts.
His smile never fades.
End of Chapter II (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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Chapter III: Battle I
Lights.
A volcanic cave full of steaming lava, hellish and desolate like the gate to the underworld.
There is a creature newly formed in the lava.
He has no mother.
The lava is his mother.
A young mother appears climbing up to the rocks like a warrior.
The young mother wants the lava.
The creature defends it with his whole being,
because the lava is not only his mother, but also his flesh.
The mother battles with the new-born creature.
The mother hurts the creature.
The mother finally procures some Gem in the lava.
The gem glows in the dark.
It glows,
glows,
glows,
faintly and steadily, like heartbeats.
The mother starts to glow simultaneously with the gem.
She keeps the gem carefully.
She walks warily with valiant scars, towards another area in the space.
Lights follow the mother, and go down on the wounded creature.
End of Chapter III (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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Chapter IV: The Princess who Fed on Gems
The young mother arrives at a smaller area in the center of the space
There is a tiny, tiny little girl - the smallest thing in the theatre.
The young mother kneels.
She takes out a bowl and spoon.
She fills the bowl with the glowing gem,
and carefully feeds her little girl,
her only child,
with the best food in the world,
slowly, shakily,
mouthful by mouthful,
glowing gently while she feeds,
feeds,
feeds.
The little girl starts to glow very faintly, like heartbeats.
She looks at her own glow with curiosity.
Lights up slightly on the Cutter, the creepy clown.
He cuts.
cuts.
cuts.
cuts.
Lights fade on the feeding mother and child and stay on the Cutter.
End of chapter IV (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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Chapter V: The Sad Writer
While lights stay on the Cutter, another area is lit,
showing a sad writer in faded suit and loosened tie.
He should look as comically tragic as possible.
He can be a clown in Chekhovian outfit.
A great amount of shreds cut up by the Cutter fall on his desk, and turn into pieces of white paper. (Lights on the Cutter now fades.)
The sad writer writes on a piece of paper.
He scratches his head.
He crumples it by hand and throws it on the floor.
He writes, crumples the paper and throws it on the floor.
He writes, crumples the paper and throws it on the floor.
He scratches his head.
He loosens his tie some more.
He writes, crumples the paper and throws it on the floor.
Endlessly.
Lights fade.
End of Chapter V (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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Chapter VI: The Provider of Warmth and Gem
Lights.
A desolate volcanic cave.
A most peculiar, oversized creature is now fully grown after the defeat.
He now looks completely different: magnificently beautiful, amazingly ugly but strangely benign-looking.
He is perpetually trapped in lava.
He tries to escape, but can't.
Tries to escape, but can't.
He sees the mother feeding the gem to the little girl.
He watches and watches.
He looks at their glow with wonder.
Their glow is so tender, so unlike his own.
He tries to glow like that.
He fails most of the times.
But whenever he succeeds a little,
he is filled with glee.
He tries to walk towards the little girl.
But all the lava makes it impossible.
Failing, he looks for something to do.
He manages to generate the same kind of gem from his body.
He is surprised and overjoyed.
He tries more enthusiastically to walk towards the little girl.
He tries.
He can’t.
He tries.
He can’t.
The lights on the mother and child fade.
The clown keeps trying.
He tries.
He can’t.
He tries.
He can’t.
He tries.
He can’t.
He can’t.
He can’t.
Lights fade.
End of Chapter VI (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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Chapter VII: The Match Girl
Lights.
A young woman with long black hair in a room.
She is kneeling.
She is skinny, her disheveled long hair covering up most of her face - a young, unadorned face without make up.
She is wearing a thin white dress, shivering unstoppably.
The corner is filled with scattered, crumpled white paper -
The writer's discarded writings all accumulated here and formed a piece of installation art.
She has a box of matches.
She frantically tries to light a fire.
Striking one match after another.
But,
She shivers so badly it is almost impossible.
She tries.
She can’t.
She tries.
She can’t.
She tries.
She can’t.
Her shivering becomes more and more vehement.
She keeps trying,
frantically.
Lights stay on.
End of Chapter VII (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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Chapter VIII: Symphony
FULL LIGHT IN THE WHOLE SPACE.
ALL the six areas of performers are fully lit.
All performers are at work together, creating a magnificent great symphony under a snowstorm in the entire space.
The Old Weaver generates the white cloth,
The Cutter transforms them into an amazing quantity of white shreds, which also madly snows on the sad writer.
The Princess’s glow becomes fuller and warmer throughout the feeding.
The Sad Writer discards his writings in rapid speed.
The whole theatre is soon drowned by his white pieces of sorrow.
They form a river and begin to flow.
It flows passes the Princess who Fed on Gems, and towards the Match Girl.
The little ocean of paper makes the installation art more surreal.
Lights stay fully on.
All the performers are madly at work, making as big a mess as possible, until the theatre is transformed into a stunning white world, of the woven substance.
When the symphony reaches its peak, all the lights go out with a boom.
End of BOOK I (Go Back to Chapter Index)
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The work CLOWN PIECES is dedicated to Leslie Ayvazian, an incredible mentor of mine.