The court jester Stańczyk by Jan Matejko (1862)
CLOWNS! GHOSTS! ELEPHANTS! WALES!
Since the storming success of "Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal in Bohemia!" in Karachi and London in 2019, Victoriana-mania has taken hold at S&F HQ most eloquently by staggering blindly but with total faith into a comedic booby trap-laden haunted 400 year old house in Gwynedd.
Whilst Y Mabinogi and Other Stories continues its none-too-stately progress around Wales, we've been busy working on a whole new Music Hall vaudeville spectacular, the funny, fantastical and phantasmagorical world of the Fox Sisters, investigating the paranormal and supernatural characters across Victorian England and America, replete with revolving seance tables, inexplicable flying objects and plenty of slapstick..but we're not giving away any tricks of the trade just yet...
We thoroughly prepared ourselves (and the neighbours) with some magic classes, a few visiting mediums and a thoroughly open mind but importantly, by having studied with the great London Clown School and Commedia Teachers’ Toolkit course with Learning Through Laughter in order to limber up for some more ghostly capers!
We also got involved in Molly's Masquerade, a year long community arts project from St Margeret's House in London, which focused on early LGBTQ+ culture through Molly Houses. ‘‘Molly's Masquerade’’ was a celebration of the unifying features of queer radicals, sex workers and the outsiders who contested the patriarchal, moral attitudes of the time. St. Margaret’s House provided the space, tools and inspiration for a community investigation into the Mollies phenomenon and their relevance to contemporary society. People of all ages and backgrounds were invited to get involved in several workshops and finally, everyone worked towards recreating a big Molly Masquerade ball!
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ELEPHANTS?!
WELL! We couldn't pass up an opportunity to dramatise the suspiciously subversive and unwittingly hilarious story of the Elephants of Abersytwyth on the excellent Victorian promenade, including rampaging elephants, railways, royalty and bakery! Watch this space while we source some elephants for summer 2025!
A final word...the pensive man in a glorious shade of red above is Stańczyk, a court jester when Poland was at the height of its political, economic and cultural power during the Renaissance in Poland under the reign of King Sigismund I the Old (1506–1548). Stańczyk was considered much more than a mere entertainer, however. He was a jester, a clown, an actor and a political commentator. In many respects, we are all court jesters; we are all clowns and our role is to act and to comment, to do and speak out, to represent those inside and outside, both order and disorder, as actors and activists and to joyfully subvert.
If history has told us anything, the world will always need a clown, so go not gently into that good night.
Anon, good friends.