We investigate the personas of sacred clowns and court jesters, who have a long history in Africa and Europe. 

 

Sometimes referred to as priest clowns, sacred clowns embody qualities that are often considered opposites. They control and play with the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, challenging rules and authorities. They are fluid beings that create and dissolve phenomenal realities. They liquefy reality. 

 

Like kings, sacred clowns occupy a spiritual and commanding position in society, enabling them to transgress human moral codes. They are permitted to provoke, parody, taunt, tickle and titillate. Therefore, the ritual clown must master the art of burlesque, learning to embody the ludicrous, the incongruous, and the backwards, forwards, and upside-down.

 

For it is with inversion, the turning of cultural norms inside out and wrong side up, that traditional, spiritual and societal values, social positions and identities are reaffirmed, inspired and redefined with hilarity and irony.

 

They parody society in precarious times; they reveal and reconcile.

 

The sacred clown represents a reversal of the normal order, an opening to the chaos that preceded creation.

 

This is a project in collaboration with dramaturg Esther Severi.