When Artistic Director Bill Taylor secured the rights to produce "Clown Bar" in 2022, he had a sneaking suspicion that the noir clown comedy would be very well received. But even he was surprised by how well it did. Theatre Conspiracy is bringing the show back to the Foulds Theatre at the Alliance for Arts for a return engagement.
“We sold out so quickly last year, so many people could not see the show. They were requesting it, so we said, ‘Sure, why not?’ It was so much fun to do, let’s bring it back, do it again,” said Taylor.
The story revolves around Happy Mahoney, a gumshoe detective who, coincidentally, is a former clown.
“Happy is presenting as the classic, hard-boiled, noir detective,” said Steven Coe of his character. “Very Humphrey Bogart model kind of thing.”
Happy thought he’d left the world of organized clown crime behind, but he returns to the Clown Bar to find out who killed his younger brother, Timmy. He’s certainly not anxious to encounter his former clown cronies, but there’s one clown he’d especially like to avoid – his ex, Blinky Fatale.
“You know, like a femme fatale,” quipped Coe. “It’s all very on the nose. On the clown nose … She’s a burlesque dancer …. They have a lot of smolder between the two.”
As it turns out, Blinky is still carrying a torch for Happy.
“Throughout the years maybe she hadn’t really found somebody who related as much to her. And in Happy, she kind of found that happiness, for heck of a better term,” observed Kelly Rivadulla, who plays Blinky.
The sparks reignite, and it just might be a case of true clown love.
In both literature and film, femme fatales are both desirable and diabolical, captivating and conniving. Blinky Fatale is all of this, and more. Sure, she craves love and perhaps even a family, but she wants out of the Clown Bar. She’s the clown crime boss’ moll, and he doesn’t treat her well. She’s been putting on a show at the bar far too long and, in Rivadulla’s words, “Blinky’s ready to just take the make-up off.”
Blinky sees Happy as her best, perhaps only real chance to escape the Clown Bar and have a real life. So in an effort to fully ensnare Happy, Blinky does what Blinky does best. She puts on the vamp.
Rivadulla is particularly suited to the role of Blinky Fatale. She’s a long-standing performer with Glam Bam Burlesque, which performs locally at venues like the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center.
“Not only do I have a background in burlesque, but I’ve also had a background in musical theater for a very long time,” said Rivadulla. “So I think both of those things combined kind of make my Blinky character. I’m able to pull a little from the burlesque kind of charm and nuance, and also from my musical theater background I sing in the show. So I bring that in as well.”
As "Clown Bar" is a parody of old crime noir films, Blinky isn’t the traditional femme fatale. Rather than using her sizzling sexuality to lure Happy into a dangerous trap for her own benefit, she tries to keep him out of danger by offering to run away with him right then and there.
But Happy Mahoney is a full-fledged narcissist. All that’s important to Happy is what he wants. And what he wants in "Clown Bar" is to avenge his brother’s murder - collateral damage and body count be damned.
Of course, "Clown Bar" is a play and Bill Taylor and his cast have to follow the script. Nevertheless, this year’s version will be quite different. Four of the actors who appeared last year were no longer available and their replacements are putting their own spin on their characters, particularly Maddy Weymouth, who plays the maniacally murderous Popo.
But the set-up is the same. Bill Taylor is converting the Foulds Theatre into a seedy night club. That means limited seating.
So if you want to know whether Blinky gets Happy, if you want to know who killed Timmy, then get your tickets now. This run is going to sell out too …
Because the clowns have all come home.
MORE INFORMATION:
- Go here for play dates, times and a full cast list.
- Go here to listen to last year’s WGCU Clown Bar Spotlight on the Arts.
- The vocals you hear in this segment are provided by Scott Thompson, who plays the role of Clown Bar crooner, Dusty, the club’s sad sack emcee.
- Adam Szymkowicz's plays have been produced throughout the U.S., and in Canada, England, Wales, The Isle of Man, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Turkey, Switzerland, South Korea, Thailand, Sweden, Austria, Slovenia and Lithuania. His work has been presented or developed at such places as Portland Center Stage, MCC Theater, Ars Nova, South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons, LCT3, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Lark, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Primary Stages and The New Group, among others.
- In addition to Clown Bar, Adam Szymkowicz’s published plays include Deflowering Waldo, Pretty Theft, Food For Fish, Hearts Like Fists, Incendiary, The Why Overhead, Adventures of Super Margaret, 7 Ways To Say I Love You, Rare Birds, Marian Or The True Tale of Robin Hood, Kodachrome, Mercy, The Book Store, Old Fashioned Cold Fusion, The Parking Lot, Night Children, Nerve and Clown Bar 2. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, Concord/Samuel French, Playscripts, Broadway Play Publishing, Stage Partners and Original Works Publishing, and featured in numerous Smith and Kraus and Applause books. His Monologue Book, Small Explosions, comes out from Applause in 2023.
- Adam received a Playwright’s Diploma from The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and an MFA from Columbia University, where he was the Dean’s Fellow. Szymkowicz is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, a member of the Dramatists Guild and Writer’s Guild of America, and was a member of Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer’s Group, the MCC Playwright’s Coalition and of the very first Ars Nova Play Group.
- The term "femme fatale" was coined in nineteenth-century French literature. The archetype was portrayed as cold-hearted, deceitful and violent, often using her powers of seduction as a means to destroy her enemies. A famous example from that time is John Keats’ La Belle Dame Sans Merci, who puts men in her thrall by luring them into her arms.
- However, the femme fatale archetype can be found in literature and folklore as far back as ancient Greece. Homer created the character of Circe in The Odyssey.
- But the femme fatale archetype became iconic in film noir beginning in the 1930s. Some of the more famous cinematic examples from that epoch in Hollywood filmmaking include Mary Astor as Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis in Double Indemnity, Rita Hayworth in Gilda and Lana Turner as Cora in The Postman Always Rings Twice.
- In noir film, femme fatales used their sexuality as a form of power over men in order to get what they want no matter the consequences. They were characterized as women who’d gone astray. As a consequence, they were depicted as villainous, duplicitous, and occasionally as depraved tricksters. But cinema was a male-dominated industry in between 1930 and the late 1950s. Independent, free-thinking women in full possession of their sexuality were to be feared and the message implicit in many noir films was that a woman’s proper place was in the home, married and subservient to her husband.
- Modern femme fatales are often re-imagined as bold, ambitious and often-enigmatic heroes and anti-heroes who use their sexuality, seductive charms and fashion consciousness in aid of lofty, aspirational ends, such as Carey Mulligan’s character in Promising Young Woman. If anything, they are passionate women who’s angst is fueled by men who routinely dismiss their thoughts and opinions and minimalize their achievements.
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.
Audio is engineered and produced by WGCU's Tara Calligan.
Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is funded in part by Naomi Bloom, Jay & Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie & Phil Wade.
