By Judd Hollander
Photos: Sean Dooley
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| Lawrence Jansen as Gonko The Clown |
Godlight Theatre Company goes for a
wild run to the dark side with their unsettling and rather macabre presentation
of The Pilo Family Circus. Based on the novel by Will Elliott and
powerfully adapted by Matt Pelfrey, the play chronicles the journey of Jamie
(Nick Paglino), a man in a dead end job who, after nearly running down a
mysterious figure one dark night, finds to his surprise that said person is
actually a circus clown-- complete with makeup, costume, clown shoes and a
balloon--named Gonko (Lawrence Jansen). Gonko's words, however, are anything
but welcoming. Seeing something special in Jamie, Gonko presents him with a gift
before vanishing. Soon Jamie begins to have strange dreams about the clown and
others like him; dreams which begin to manifest themselves in reality. Not long
after, Jamie and his roommate and fellow slacker Steve (Craig Peterson) are
kidnapped by Gonko and his crew and taken to a sort of surreal location in
another dimension where the clowns have their home base - the strange and
faction-divided Pilo Family Circus. A place complete with fortune tellers, magicians,
acrobats and other circus performers.
The circus is run by the feuding
Pilo brothers - Kurt (Gregory Konow) a being over 10 feet tall, and George, a
tiny marionette who's always accompanied by his mild-mannered accountant, Roger
(Brett Glass). The circus often sets up shop in the real world, luring
unsuspecting costumers into see their various routines. Ones which are not at
all what the uninitiated expect. Initially Jamie resists becoming a part of
this clown entourage, first trying desperately to wake up from what he
considers to a dream, and later trying to escape from wherever he is, but Gonko
and his cronies have other ideas. Soon Jamie finds himself being transformed
into the evil clown JJ, who becomes even more terrifying than Gonko and his
crew expect, and who would like nothing better than to destroy all traces of
Jamie's existence.
The play presents a fascinating
look at the dark side of human nature and the monsters hidden deep in one's
soul and just beyond the warmth of the bedroom nightlight, waiting patiently in
the darkness. As JJ becomes ever stronger and Jamie learns his connection to
the circus stretches much further into his past than he ever realized, the
story becomes not so much a battle between good and evil but rather a bleak
look at the not-so-innocent trying to survive in world gone mad. It's a place
where freedom is taboo, where everyone suffers and evil can only be temporarily
held in abeyance, but never totally destroyed or defeated. Especially not by
the faint, flickering light of hope occasionally trying to illuminate the
darkness.
Director Joe Tantalo should be
especially commended for staging the story with just enough elements to give it
a familiar circus feel, yet at the same time keeping things dark enough to
allow the horror of the unexpected and unexplained to come through full force.
He also nicely handles the smaller moments of the piece. Such as the yin and
yang relationship of the feuding Pilo brothers; and the marriage between one of
the clowns and a plant, something which is far more tragic than funny; guiding
these instances with the same even hand used when presenting the overt sexual
outbursts that spew forth from several of the circus inhabitant's mouths.
Paglino makes for an interesting if
not totally relatable Jamie. A man who used to drift through life, he finds
himself longing for the monotony of his former existence now that it's been
taken from him. Though the more things change, the more they ultimately stay
the same, as he eventually finds out.
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| Michael Shimkin as Goshy the Clown Gregory Konow as Kurt Pilo and Nick Paglino as Jamie |
Jansen is great as Gonko, with
Chris Cipriano, Jarrod Zayas and Michael Shimkin all working well as his
demented sidekicks. Having no real grounding in reality, these fellows are free
to be as over the top and as evil as they need. Which, given the circumstances
presented, ring totally true. Other memorable turns come from Dre Davis as the
mysterious fortune teller; Glass as a half-man, half-fish creature; and Michael
Tranzilli as the stalwart "oldster" clown Winston, who just may hold
the key to Jamie's escape. Special mention must also go to Konow for effortlessly
standing on some rather large stilts for most of the show.
The costumes by Orli Nativ are
wonderful to look at, especially the clown outfits. All of which are nicely
bright and garish, as befitting the characters in question. The lighting and
sound effects, by Maruti Evans and Ien DeNio respectively, are also superb.
Definitely not for the faint of
heart, or for young children prone to nightmares, The Pilo Family Circus
looks at the darkness of the soul from the outside in, with Godlight taking the
raw materials present and ramming them home for maximum effect.
The Pilo Family Circus
Featuring: Nick Paglino (Jamie/JJ
the Clown), Lawrence Jansen (Gonko the Clown), Michael Tranzilli (Winston the
Clown), Chris Cipriano (Rufshod the Clown), Jarrod Zayas (Doopy the Clown), Michael
Shimkin (Goshy the Clown), Gregory Konow (Kurt Pilo), Brett Glass
(Richard/George Pilo and Roger the Accountant/Mugabo the
Magician/Fishboy/Carnie), Craig Peterson (Steve/Sven the Acrobat), Dre Davis
(Svetlana/Enzo the Acrobat/Shalice/Carnie), Jenny Stulberg (Randolph the
Acrobat/Carnie)
Lighting Design: Maruti Evans
Fight Choreography: Rick Sordelet
Masks: Brendan Tay and the Puppet
Kitchen
Production Stage Manager: Megan
Miller-McKeever
Press Rep: David Gibbs/DARR
Publicity
Choreography: Maiysha Cade + Michael
Blackmon
Sound Design: Ien DeNio
Costume Design: Orli Nativ
Dramaturg: Christina Hurtado-Pierson
Presented by The New Oho Theatre
Tickets: 212-868-4444 or
www.smarttix.com
Information: www.NewOhioTheatre.org
Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes,
no intermission
Closes: 
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