Send in the Clowns

by Margaret Meehan April 29, 2010

I went to see Samual Beckett’s ‘Endgame’ at the Undermain Theatre the other night. It’s directed by Stan Wojewodski Jr. and is at once hilarious and incredibly bleak.

 

Set in a bunker, it depicts the last days of a group of survivors who are waiting for the end after some unknown catastrophe. The characters are decaying clowns, hybrids of comedy and tragedy: the blind and chair bound master Hamm, his parents Nagg and Nell who live in two trash bins at the back of the stage, and his servant Clov. They are selfish, regressive and rotting.

 

With so much suffering why should you go to see this play? As Clov says to Hamm, “I stay for the dialogue” and because the history of comedy reminds us that there is nothing funnier than unhappiness.

 

On a similar but different note and with clowns on the brain I also present Bruce Nauman, Cindy Sherman, Roni Horn, Paul McCarthy, and Stephen Sondheim’s take on the subject:

 

 

 

Bruce Nauman

 

Cindy Sherman

 

Isn’t it bliss?
Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can’t move.
But where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Don’t bother they’re here. – From the musical A Little Night Music.

Roni Horn

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