Furiozo

This is the most moving one-man clown show I have ever seen.

Every few years there is some clown-type that comes from overseas and wows the Australian fringe comedy scene. It is often lo-fi (due to travelling light), highly embodied and has a certain je ne sais quoi that inspires a tier of young performers to go and study clown or physical comedy as soon as humanly possible. Furiozo by Polish artist Piotr Sikora is surely one of those shows.

The artist, Piotr is a fine performer. He carries the show with pure physicality, hardly any words are spoken therefore the audience has to come to him. We are there, we are in his timing, his rhythm and his imagined world. Because we aren’t using our energy to listen we are using our energy to play and to feel. The way Piotr uses his body signals to me that he has a background of good physical theatre training. He has great fixed point, mime skills, he knows how to develop his writing themes and his character is clear. These are the makings of good physical theatre.

The character, Furiozo, is a law-breaking, partying dude who bangs on walls and likes his hip-hop way too loud. He’s seriously tough, but not just. Piotr plays ‘tough’ with such extreme softness and silliness that we are taken in and feel very safe. He seeks consent from the audience for any interactivity and also seeks consent from his inanimate co-characters. There is a hilarious scene with his girlfriend and that is all I’ll say as I don't want to spoil it. Asking for consent and clowning go hand in hand so the creator has hit a stylistic sweet spot. He uses the sensitivity required for clown work to show something about how the world could be. Where a furious, wild, male presenting man, with a big intimidating body actually has the capacity to be sensitive, respectful and present. Are we as a society ready to hold the tension of these opposites yet? Cancel culture doesn’t leave room for us to hold the complexity of someone’s character. Plus, as Furiozo shows us, we all learnt our behaviour from somewhere, right? The founders of Gestalt Therapy say that ‘the self can only emerge in relationship to the other’.

The show captures tensions. Tensions of hedonism and responsibility. Of hardness and softness. Of cause and effect. But to boil it down to words like that doesn’t actually do justice to how much of a cleverly embodied and emotionally complex show this is. It is a must see because it will touch everyone differently. It was just such a joy to not know anything about this show before going to see it, so the show landed on me like a poetic wave. When the wave hit there was something to cry about at the end. Something to mourn. Is our human stupidity both a blessing and a curse? Is it naive to think we could truly break a cycle? Is the son destined to become the father?

This artist has filtered an important writing urge through the lens of clown and physical comedy and succeeded. It is a clear example that sometimes the less words used, the more an artist can actually say. Piotr shows us that clowning is not just about getting up on stage and impulsively doing what makes you feel good. Clowning has the extraordinary ability to move the audience into emotional territory about difficult themes. Piotr as Furiozo does just that, he has written a brilliantly simple, very funny, poignant clown show. Words don’t do justice so stop reading and get your body there.

By Kimberley Twiner