FringeReview Worldwide 2025
Amour Utopique
Mimofatguy
Genre: Circus, Clown, Comedy, Family, Interactive, International, One Person Show, Solo Show, Variety Show, World Theatre
Venue: Rouge Gorge
Festival: FringeReview Worldwide
Low Down
Mimofatguy brings his circus and street theatre experience to the stage in a 50-minute show that has the potential to evolve into a more meaningful performance if his skills are honed in bolder, more daring directions.
Review
Taiwan is present at this edition of the 2025 Avignon Off festival with a total of 4 shows, spanning from dance and dance theatre to the solo clown show Amour Utopique (in English “Utopian Love”) performed by mime and circus performer Mimofatguy.
The play is hosted at the Rouge Gorge, a beautiful large venue whose seat layout and general feel is nearer to the bohemian classy atmosphere of the Moulin Rouge than the more family-like participative stage of a circus tent.
Mimofatguy entertains the audience with exemplary circus skills right from the beginning, developing a number where he balances a knife in his mouth, holding an inflated balloon steady on its blade and a candle holder on top of it.
His clown mask is a classic one: red nose, painted eyes and a smile stretching from cheek to cheek. Yet, a touch of melancholy emerges from his character that touches some poetic elements when he sings a love song (spoiler, he is an excellent singer) and develops an intimate scene where old age casts its shadow on the passion of young love.
And love and the essence of love is the core of the play throughout the performance, from courting to marriage, from family life to old age. Yet it seems that the artist hesitates in leaving behind the known for the unknown, relying too much on what makes him stay safe in his comfort zone.
Mimofatguy is certainly at ease with audience interaction, and he directs at times, with Asian gentleness, his guests on the stage to help him out constructing a romantic scene. However, it seems he could easily abandon this stratagem to search not for the laughter but rather a deeper emotional connection with the audience.
Attention in this case is the key, much more important than laughter, especially when diving into the force holding the universe that “has reasons that reason cannot explain” (Blaise Pascal). To fall in love is to lose control, to let go, to float driven by a mystical energy that uses us as its tool.
Maybe that’s too much to ask… a utopia.
Overall a nice and entertaining show, with a positive message and the potential to grow into a deeper stage experience.
