Westfälischer Anzeiger Hamm, December 18, 2002

Tomatoes were thrown at the "Flops"

Drama: The clown workshop presented a thoroughly ridiculous "Christmas Salad", by Edda Breski

HAMM
The "Christmas Salad" was presented by Christopher Hustert, who runs the clown workshop, together with his pupils. Clowns also celebrate Christmas - but in a difference way.

To start with every member of the audience had to hand in a present. Then a kaleidoscope of funny, melancholic and ironic scenes brightened up the stage. In the centre there was the white clown "CoCo" (Sigurd K. Kuepper) surrounded by nine clowns. They stumbled and slipped around on the stage and ate as much as they could (Rocco gobbled up a whole Christmas cake), unpacked presents which were only pieces of wood and had fun with a real shower of soap bubbles.

It is surprisingly hardly noticeable any more that the eight clowns are pure amateurs, who, alongside their usual jobs, have learnt to be clowns in Hustert's workshops: the actors are sure of themselves and have courage for the absurd.

The bursts of laughter from the audience increased as the programme progressed. The climax was the general
merriment over the ballet scene: Rocco, in a sky-blue ballet skirt and like a shy, grinning girl, let Gogo put castanets on his fingers as engagement rings. This was following by a priceless ballet scene, a parody of the classical pas-de-deux. The only difference was that the female ballet dancer Rocco was a whole head taller than Gogo as premier danseur. No wonder both of them had contact with floor of the stage.

It was no small wonder either that this number was one of the best that evening: Rocco, alias Christophe Houlier, is a professional clown who supports the performances of his colleague Christopher Hustert. The rest was "tomato salad": CoCo was publicly ashamed of the "poor performance" by the young clowns and explicitly allowed the audience to pelt the "flops" with the tomatoes that had been handed out beforehand. That was the salad .....

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