Westfälischer Anzeiger Hamm, June 4, 2002

Salami as baton

Drama: Clowning around on the open-air stage,
by Evelin Oertelt

HAMM
The international clown theatre evening on the studio theatre of the open-air stage was nothing for vegetarians. The Hamm Clown Workshop presented a "Sausage Parade" on Sunday evening directed by Christopher Hustert from the Centre for Theatre and Culture. The audience was put in the right mood even before the performance. They could pay in "sausage currency". A great variety of sausages, packed with great care and decorated with fancy ribbons were exchanged for tickets and collected in a big saucepan.

The excellent performance by the difference clown characters using mime and gestures was worthy of greater response.

The scenes, that enchanted the audience, were as colourful as the clowns themselves. Above all the trained mime Christophe Haulier as the clown "Rocco" gave a demonstration in body language. Falling over each other Lutschi Gucci (Heike Thomas), Cicco (Achim Klein), Sorry (Rainer Wienecke), Paru (Predeepa Patrick) and Flopp (Michaela Jöring-Hahn) tried frantically in vain to assemble their suitcases according to size. They got a good scolding by the strict white clown Coco (Sigurd K. Kuepper): as a figure of respect in his shiny costume: he did his best to discipline the clowns. Pepito (Tim Rocholl), Uflie Buflie (Volker Mauck) and Trüli (Stefanie Münzberg) were helpless in the face of their William Tell props in the shape of a crossbow and an extra large apple, and were careful to avoid a spectacular final scene. Corinne Ehm, as the giggly and bubbly clown girl "Biba" pleased the audience, reminding them a bit of Pippi Longstocking.

The climax was the "Sausage Symphony - 2. Skin in four Ends" performed by the cast - enough to make the ears and the sides split. The music stands became sausage plates, the baton was a salami, and instead of singing in praise of the hat with three corners (a German traditional song) it was the sausage with two ends.

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