Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Shaolin Clown
Genre: Clown, Comedy, Mime, Physical Theatre
Venue: Teatro Fisico
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A Shaolin monk relives his childish and clownish soul in his Zen practice, discovering a world always full of surprises and finds its meaning in seemingly insignificant little things.
Review
Tom Corradini’s solo show explores the world of a monk meeting his inner child. He plays, moves, sings and does everything you wouldn’t typically expect from a Shaolin monk. He explores the little things in his life, and finds macrocosms within microcosms. He’s endearing, charming and incredibly skilful.
The show is held together by Corradini’s skill. He’s masterful with his mime techniques. Wearing only a shirt and trousers along with a sling bag, he manages to create characters, worlds and images with his body that transport us into the world of his imagination. His skills leave us happily surprised and charmed. He’s precise, structured and extremely polished. A performance like this often leaves you with a deep appreciation for the years one must’ve spent in rehearsal rooms polishing their craft.
Corradini has the body of a magician. Every movement is so deep in its precision that it asks for an applause at its completion. But he has only a few magic tricks. Halfway through the performance, one starts to wonder what else is being offered here. Is there a window into the life of the artist here? What moves Corradini to create these childlike worlds for us? How do we connect with the artist on a deeper level?
As impressive as Corradini’s technique is, we miss connecting with him. At a moment when he pulls off his best trick and unexpectedly creates a perfect bubble, we wait for him to share his feeling about it with us. He instead ignores it and tries to create more bubbles. The creation of the bubble is a wonderful technique for sure, but him sharing his response to it with the audience is what would’ve transcended that moment from a display of technique to an experience of connection. We see him creating worlds through mime like a child, but we miss the child-like wonder in his eyes.
Shaolin: You Don’t Have to Fight to Win by Bernhard Moestl is cited by Corradini as the inspiration and the starting point of this show. The Shaolin principles of presence, imitation and slowness as mentioned in the book are taken as principles to be performed in different scenes of the show. While I can observe and commend the attention to detail and the execution of these principles, I’m left with not feeling the effects of these principles as an audience member.
Often great training in technique can reveal the soul through practice and manage to move the audience. At other times, the soul is the starting point and the performer finds appropriate techniques to contain the soul in order to share it. But a good balance of both is often required to move the audience. Technique can sometimes become a wall to hide behind, and we experienced Corradini quite hidden today. Can the real Corradini please stand up?
