About the production
Welcome to the school of laughter. A man in patent leather shoes that are too tight for him. A master who celebrates himself as a genius. A pupil who follows his fate. A ball rolls through the room, and suddenly everything changes.
“Der Clown und Europa” is a fast, poetic and absurdly comic journey through the highs and lows of being. Clown philosophy meets physical theatre, circus meets tragedy, power meets powerlessness. What happens when laughter is regulated? When the free play of imagination turns into a system of power? When the pupil surpasses the teacher, and the children take over the sceptre?
At its heart is the story of a child who, growing up, loses the freedom to laugh, to speak freely and to think critically. The piece was developed with the actor Fabian Vogt, the dancer and choreographer Rodrigo Opazo Castro and the children of the Theaterkidsclub Freiberg.
It is one of four one-hour productions that form “Inside Outside Europe”, a tetralogy created by the theatres of Chemnitz, Freiberg/Döbeln, Plauen-Zwickau and Annaberg-Buchholz for Chemnitz, European Capital of Culture 2025, on a shared set. It premiered in Freiberg on 14 March 2025, was shown at the Spinnbau in Chemnitz and later travelled to the Gewandhaus Zwickau.
“I wanted to tell the story of the child who, growing up, loses the freedom to laugh, to speak freely, to think critically.”
Gallery
Photos: Detlev Müller
Press reviews
Eine Theaterfantasie, die fröhlich stimmt
Director Petra Ratiu succeeds in creating a cheerful blend of clowning and absurd theatre: a well-choreographed theatrical fantasy with children who love to play, two glorious clowns, and a meta level that everyone can find for themselves.
English translation
The audience then experiences a fabulous Fabian Vogt as an unusual clown who, seemingly chained inseparably to his stilts, towers over the scene and so appears mighty and ridiculous at once; who loses himself in pathos, but also says some clever things […]
Rodrigo Opazo Castro soon joins him on stage, another wonderful clown with a sprawling head of hair. But the assistant soon turns into an opponent, and so do the children […]. At first they do what the clown wants, almost like marionettes. But before long the clown's assistant and the clown's pupils practise their emancipation from the great master.
Director Petra Ratiu succeeds with her piece in creating a cheerful blend of clowning and absurd theatre, a well-choreographed theatrical fantasy, with children who love to play and two glorious clowns, but also with a meta level that everyone can find for themselves.
Original · Deutsch
Das Publikum erlebt dann einen fabelhaften Fabian Vogt als ungewöhnlichen Clown, der scheinbar untrennbar gefesselt an seine Stelzen zwar die Szenerie überragt, damit mächtig und lächerlich zugleich erscheint, der sich im Pathos verliert, aber auch einige kluge Dinge sagt […]
Mit Rodrigo Opazo Castro gesellt sich bald ein weiterer wunderbarer Clown mit ausladender Haarpracht auf die Bühne. Doch aus dem Assistenten wird bald ein Gegenspieler, genau wie die Kinder […]. Zunächst tun sie das, was der Clown will – beinahe wie Marionetten. Doch schon bald üben sich Clowns-Assistent und Clownsschüler in Emanzipation vom großen Meister.
Regisseurin Petra Ratiu gelingt mit ihrem Stück eine fröhlich anmutende Mischung aus Clownerie und absurdem Theater, eine gut choreografierte Theaterphantasie, mit sehr spielfreudigen Kids, und zwei herrlichen Clowns, aber auch mit einer Metaebene, die jeder für sich finden kann.
Excerpt from “Eine Theaterfantasie, die fröhlich stimmt”, Freie Presse, 17 March 2025.
More coverage