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Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Two
The nightmarish conversations overheard from the sewers of London supply a string of deranged sexual encounters. Pure clowning genius!Summary
Rating
Good
Gary Strange (Natasha Sutton Williams) has beaten the cost-of-living crisis by settling down in the London sewage system. The arrangement offers many perks, including allowing its unlikely resident to listen to all the private conversations of unaware Londoners – which he eagerly collects with the help of an old cassette recorder. In this show, three separate vignettes reenact the most outrageous things he’s overheard so far.
Opening proceedings, a schoolteacher’s pursuit of sexual satisfaction is so unconceivably off the rails to have us all in hysterics. In the inner monologue of the frustrated loner trapped in a dead-end job, Sutton Williams’s refined writing crashes at full speed against a wall of obscenities. Even the crassest observations are somehow beautifully worded and the lingering presence of children in the story make it even more disturbing.
The subsequent antics of an older woman who engages in (consensual) sex with a cat aren’t as effective as the rest. The punchlines don’t seem to be as well received, proof that perhaps bestiality is a step too far even for the broad-minded Fringe-goers. Personally, it has me completely disconnected, which I think is a real shame.
In contrast, the final sketch – to which the show owes its title – is a stroke of brilliance. Gary’s first-hand account of the sexual endeavours with a foul-mouthed clown sits somewhere between unconfessed fetish and scariest nightmare. Cuckoo the clown is a genuinely terrifying creature and yet, it is also deranged enough to arouse curiosity. I can see dozens of happy childhood memories suddenly bursting amongst the audience, as Cuckoo’s pubes are described like the multicoloured wig of the clowns found at birthday parties (you’ll thank me later).
Sutton Williams’s complete mastery of body language emphasises her unquestionable talent as a performer as well as author. She truly is a clowning genius, able to create well-rounded artistic work with an absurdist edge that is absolutely out of the box. Just for the record, with or without bestiality, this show won’t appeal to everyone. But, at the same time, is a firm representation of what fringe is all about, shattering the mould of theatrical convention.
Written by: Natasha Sutton Williams
Produced by: PlayWell Productions
Clown Sex plays at EdFringe 2023 until 27 August, 1:45pm at Pleasance Courtyard. Further information and bookings here.
