According to Gaulier, Bouffon originated with the “ugly people” of France, people with disfiguring scars, with deformities, lepers. Craig has chosen to portray Love Bug Louie as having a four foot tall, misshapen body. He wears a suit that shortens his frame and sticks out his “ass” and “stomach”. He becomes one of the “ugly people”. Just as Lon Chaney chose to perform Quasimodo. The set reflects this choice. It is strewn with detritus of modern society. Old computer keyboards, cardboard, a tube style television, an abandoned mannequin, the modern equivalent of the swamp to which the “ugly people” were usually banished. During festivals in the French Renaissance, the ugly people were expected to entertain the “beautiful people”. According to Gaulier, during the performances, the bouffon’s goal was to get away with insulting or disgusting the “beautiful people” as much as possible
While the Fringe is chock full of one man shows, this is probably its first one monkey show. A Report to the Academy, originally a work of Franz Kafka, is an engaging piece of theatre that is certain to turn some heads. As with the most one man fringe shows, the set is sparse. A spotlighted stage, a large metal podium and a monkey in a tuxedo is all you will be seeing in this production. That being said, it is all you need to see. On its most basic level, the physical movement of this piece is fantastic but it also contains a not so subtle commentary on the things people do to survive in a strange new world.
The play is about a couple in an open marriage – a marriage in which either partner is free to have one or more other sexual partners. The husband has instigated this “modern” relationship; the wife is reluctantly going along with him, alternating between suicidal despair and the urge to get revenge on her cheating spouse. This is a story about how open relationships aren’t easy, and in the opinion of the playwright, don’t really work. As the wife, Antonia, says at one point, “if it’s open on both sides, there are terrible drafts.”
