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| Ain't too much sadder than the tears of a clown |
Pipeline Theater Company at
Parkside Lounge
written by Adam Szymkowicz
directed by Andrew Neisler
attended Feb. 28
Man walks into a
bar, looking for the joker who killed his brother. Sounds like a gag,
this piece of clown noir, and most of its cast wears a cherry red
nose. But Clown Bar pours its pulp strong enough to tickle fans of Bogart
and Mitchum too. Staged in the back room of an LES dive, the show
plays out in real time as its cop protag investigates a crime
syndicate. The script is tight and funny—hard-boiled schtick. The
direction serves to tell the story, ignoring the implications that
link clowns to class and the Sophoclean sense of fatalism that makes
noir so cynical. Shane Zeigler gives the lead detective a voice like
Batman and an attitude like Leslie Nielson: so square he's hilarious.
But he can't prevent the theft of Clown Bar by Kelly Rae O'Donnell.
Muttering like Popeye used to do, she gives her floozy in facepaint
an emotional fragile undertone. The whole show's as substantial as a helium balloon
but seriously funny.
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Clown Bar plays at Parkside
Lounge, closing on March 23. Tickets?
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