By Andrea Martell
A female clown stands on stage in a pretty white dress and a black hat. Her face is painted white and she wears a round red nose. She turns and sees a clown in a black leather jacket holding a knife.
She screams and rushes to the clown. She falls on the knife accidently and dies.
The actors’ movements are executed perfectly but one mistake could’ve caused an accident. In some cases it has.
Peter Maxwell and Libid Zyla, the clowns in Scratch and the Box have some big shoes to fill.
They are performing in place of their mentor clowns, Mump and Smoot, who cancelled all their shows at the Great Canadian Theatre Company because “Mump” got hurt.
Mump and Smoot were forced to cancel their show Caged! at the GCTC when Mike Kennard, “Mump”, was ordered by his doctor not to perform because of a back injury.
Their show Something was popular at the GCTC last year.
GCTC publicist Liam Horrocks says that the back injury was likely due to an accumulation of clowning injuries.
Barry Caplan, producer of the NightHowl Series at the GCTC, says “anytime you do a clowning show it’s physically demanding.”
Zyla and Maxwell, the producers and actors of Scratch and the Box, which is playing at the GCTC this week, learned from Mike Kennard and John Turner of Mump + Smoot at their workshops in Toronto.
“They taught us everything we know about clowning.” says Zyla.
Maxwell says he saw Mump and Smoot perform in 1991. Five minutes into the show he wanted to learn what they did and how to do what they were doing.
The duo learned clowning based on native american spirituality, European clowning and circus clowning.
Zyla calls it “A little bit of everything mixed in together.”
“Most of it’s physical,” says Maxwell “But it’s no more dangerous than when you’re doing anything on stage.”
Maxwell says he twisted his knee once when he “zigged instead of zagged”. They were forced to cancel a show because of the injury.
Both actors say that choreography and practice are vital to making the performance safe and convincing.
“You have to rehearse the tricky bits,” Maxwell says.
“Case in point. When one clown has to fall and the other has to catch. You have to catch them and catch them and catch them until you get it right.”
Zyla laughs, “If you miss the moment your partner falls on their butt.”
Perhaps the two clowns say it best as they play for the camera before the show.
“Don’t! One clown already got hurt.” says the female clown.
“Yeah, I know. It’s my trick knee.” Scratch answers and points to the knee that he once twisted.
“You always think it’s about you! I was talking about Mump!” the female clown yells.
The female clown, with a sad look on her face says, “Mump got hurt.”
Sometimes clowning around is more dangerous than it looks.