In How a Man Crumbled, Lecoq trained Clout Theatre invite us to dive head-first into the absurd and violent world of Russian poet Daniil Kharms. They tell their tale with a great deal of panache, using a provocative mix of dark clown, slapstick and surrealist imagery, and the end result has something of the feel of a Mikhail Bulgakov story retold by The Three Stooges.
As we enter the extraordinary space that is the Summerhall old veterinary school’s Demonstration Room, there leaning – hung, almost – from the bleak, peeling whitewashed walls are three steampunk bouffons. Their coats are brushed with the whitewash, and they sport the dust of aeons; their trousers or dresses are patched in a hotch-potch of fabrics and embellished with hemp and string. There are oddly-shaped hats; there is distressed make-up. As they move from their wall and around the space there is the echoing scrape of metal-tipped shoes across the concrete floor.
What follows is a kind of live version of an Expressionist film, all done with hand-held and cone-shaded lamps, the live action paired with projected slides, resulting in a kind of low-rent 1927 effect. We meet The Writer, an arrogant and possibly insane young man who wonders ‘what’s all the fuss about flowers, it smells much better between a woman’s legs’; The Old Woman, a kind of batty babushka; and a plethora of other characters, both male and female, played by the third performer. Roles, though, chop and change – at one lovely moment we have three old babushkas in headscarves staring out at us, chewing on their gums.
Terribly violent deeds occur, including assault and battery with garden vegetables, and inevitably there is a body in a trunk that needs transporting on a train – cue a horribly funny sketch of opening lids, escaping limbs, and disappearing bodies.
It is a delight to see the traditional Lecoq skills of mime, clown and bouffon used by a young company with such evident relish and pleasure in the creation of their work. The projection work could be improved, and the integration of performance and projection needs looking at, so for me although this is an interesting show, it isn’t (yet) a great show. But the ideas are there, and the performances are full of vim and vigour, so this is indeed a company to watch.