Origin of the question:

Some years ago in clown workshops I began to pick up that many students were becoming uncomfortable with clown exercises that played with violence. Most of these exercises, in my case, involved rolled-up newspapers as weapons, used by teacher or students. This kind of clown exercise has its roots in Gaulier’s method, and, one could argue, in the essence of the via negativa, where the teacher plays a role of castigator indicating when the student is one the wrong path. In clowning, this kind of played out violence had always been assumed to be ‘just a game’ (depending on the personality of the teacher, perhaps). In recent years, however, many have become disaffected with this approach, seeing it as appropriate for some types of student (generally those with privileged identities) and potentially damaging for others (generally those with marginalised and vulnerable identities).

Within this context, I am wondering how or if we can return to engage with violence as a human phenomenon which exists (and currently appears to super-exist) and demands to be addressed. Surely as clowns we cannot merely hold up our hands and say, well we have nothing to say, when we are globally spectating an actual genocide?

What this research project will explore, then, are:

Exercises: clown exercises, old and new, which play with violence.

History: the history of clowning violence – how has it manifested in different forms within different historical and cultural contexts?

Performances: how clowns can stage violence in  way that productively contributes to our current concerns and events.