Chatham, N.Y.— From July 3rd through the 5th, PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance presents the world premiere of Geoff Sobelle’s “Clown Show.”
A threadbare curtain opens on a circus that’s seen a million audiences or more. The acrobats and jugglers have long ago walked off the job. The only ones left to run the show are the clowns—scrambling, playing crumbling instruments, and struggling to keep the boat afloat, until the entire show falls apart in a spectacle of total catastrophe.
Director, actor, and dedicated absurdist Geoff Sobelle’s Clown Show shines a spotlight on the nonsensical instability of present day America on its 250th birthday weekend. A searing, hilarious portrait of our nation, this falling-apart clown show is a hallucinatory, mind-bending performance from masters of their form. It is a performance of and about chaos, wondering if perhaps the show mustn’t go on.
Sobelle, a two-time Bessie Award winner and a self-reported enthusiast of the “sublime ridiculous,” uses original music, comedy, illusion, installation and home-spun mechanics to create surreal, poetic pieces that look for humanity where you least expect it. The show is the culmination of 18 months of development, including a one-month residency at PS21. After its premiere at PS21 this summer, the show will embark on an international tour.
Performances are from July 3rd through the 5th, with an open dress on July 2nd, at PS21’s Pavilion Theater, located at 2980 Route 66 in Chatham, N.Y. Tickets and more information can be found online.