Breathless, having scaled the winding closes and steep staircases of Edinburgh’s Old Town with a Deliveroo takeaway box strapped to his back like a crucifix, a zero hours worker steps behind the “And tonight Matthew I’m going to be…” curtain and transforms into a Jongleur.
No, not a juggler with a speech impediment (though oranges are tossed into the air like confetti), but a travelling player who through storytelling and mime reenacts and reinvents several biblical scenes from the life and times of The Son of Man.
That travelling player being Julian Spooner, co-artistic director of Rhum and Clay Theatre Company, who in Ed Emery’s translation of Dario Fo’s “solo pièce célèbre” delivers a virtuoso performance laced with wit and bravado which stirs the audience into a standing ovation.
Shape-shifting with incredible, speed, accuracy and ease, each of the five selected scenes – beginning with creation and zipping through Herod, Lazarus and water into wine before nailing proceedings with the crucifixion – resonate with the politics of today.
Trump is never mentioned, but parallels to the lord of the valley who steals our land and rapes our women, referred to as the “great bladder of a landlord”, are as evident as the red nose on a clown’s face.
And in the spirit of the meddlers from the Middle Ages who challenged authority and burst the balloons of the pompous and the powerful, there is a hell of a lot of clowning about hellbound impostors and tyrannical rulers and those who fight wars in the name of religion. Jesus would be very cross!
- REVIEW: Orphans @ Edinburgh King’s Theatre ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 13th April 2022
- REVIEW: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie @ Edinburgh Festival Theatre ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 30th March 2022
- REVIEW: Sheila’s Island @ Edinburgh King’s Theatre - 2nd March 2022