San Francisco Fringe 2017
You Fucking Earned It
Naked Empire Bouffon Company
Genre: Bouffon, Physical Comedy, Satire
Venue: Exit Theatre
Festival: San Francisco Fringe
Low Down
“Naked Empire returns with a pear-shaped grotesque in a wicked partnership with a hump-backed giggle monster. Together they pull the audience into the joyous, jingle-filled depths of America’s economic imperialism. These two disturbing anti-clowns shapeshift into sex slaves, orangutans, yoga moms, and more – all to satirically celebrate our convenient consumerism.”
Review
The two whimsical characters in this show are truly in a world of their own. They relate to each other and the audience, they mime and speak poetry. In their eye-catching costumes – one in an over stuffed oval outfit of blue and white stripes and the other in a lean red and white striped costume they look different. In character they are not so different – although it is in the writing – as they speak the text through speeches and dialogue, which sounds like they are speaking in their regular voices that the two performers use in every day life.
Cara McClendon and Sabrina Wenske are co-writers and performers of this show, directed by Nathaniel Justiniano. McClendon and Wenske move quickly, with flashes of craziness as one lifts a leg and pops out babies and then shoots them with a mimed pistol. They have fun as they mess with the audience and use exaggerated mime with some grotesque images and topics in a typical bouffon way – that is, irreverently.
They play and sing to the audience in their very short bits about life in America, such as food trends and politics. There are a lot of spoken words in the show, especially in some long speeches that see the dark side of topical news and events. In short, they say out loud what’s on one’s mind.
These characters are rough and ready! They need no stage set other than a scattered pile of bags in a corner. Parts of this show are witty and entertaining, it’s a roller coaster of mime and words.
The art of creating and performing bouffon characters for theatre is not easy and requires a lot of experience and development, so that audiences can understand what’s going on and appreciate the artistry. These two characters are not there yet, it is all too slap dash with an ‘anything goes’ tone. While some parts of the show brought a lot of laughter – there were many others that could or should be more impactful and entertaining. McClendon and Wenske could benefit from developing more contrast in the characters and more finesse in the physical and vocal elements as well as the crafting of the show. While it was funny at first, the chaos and shrillness needs more depth, meaning and artistry in its storytelling – especially for bouffon theatre.
