Review
| The Boston Phoenix
| July 16 - 22, 2004
| Sibling revelry
| The Karamazov Brothers gear up for the DNC
| BY SALLY CRAGIN
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The
inner life of clowns is endlessly fascinating. Think of Shakespeare ‹
("Alas, poor Yorick"), or Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. But what about real
clowns? What happens when the slap-slap-slap of big shoes fails to
elicit a smirk? According to Paul Magid, a founding member of the
comedy troupe the Flying Karamazov Brothers ("Dmitri"), clowns have
mid-life crises "worse than anybody." He's speaking as the Karamazovs
are about to bring Life: A Guide for the Perplexed (Convention Edition)
to the Loeb Drama Center (it opens this Wednesday). "You never know
when it's coming on. I think it's the accumulation of adulthood."
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after 30 years as a Flying Karamazov, Magid found he needed to
reappraise his life. So he took his family to Italy and began reading A
Guide for the Perplexed, by the 12th-century mystic/philosopher Moses
Maimonedes. "People are still arguing about it. He wasn't just a
philosopher but also a religious Jewish man and a doctor, and he really
believed you could not only have faith but that faith could be infused
with rational thought. He used the ideas of the Greeks, which was
hugely controversial and still is."
Maimonedes and his issues are at the heart of the show that Magid
wrote in Italy. But Magid is still a Flying Karamazov at heart, so
there's plenty of juggling and zany props, including a new addition:
the electronic instrument called the Juggletron, which is seven feet
wide and features six octaves of MIDI-driven drum pads inside. "We're
in the center facing outward, and each of us commands an octave or
more, so we can play anything we want while singing and juggling."
Another strand in the show is a send-up of Bollywood movies.
"There's a character from the "Mwabogitba,' " says co-founder Howard
Jay Patterson ("Ivan"). "That's the "Men With A Bit Of Gray In Their
Beards Association.' " In the Mwabogitba Trilogy, Karamazov Brother
Mark Ettinger ("Alexei") plays an Indian narrator who sings, juggles,
and begins a "Lord Krishna' tale while Magid plays the hero. "Paul has
to fight the monster of his pasts and his own mistakes," Patterson
explains.
Other cultural allusions loom large in Life. Roderick Kimball
("Pavel"). for example, will be illustrating Shakespeare's "Seven Ages
of Man" speech by juggling seven balls. (Elsewhere, the Brothers aim
for quality, not quantity, of objects when they juggle. This they
regard as a team sport.) But there's also a political edge to this new
show, which the Brothers are continuing to sharpen with the help of ART
artistic director Robert Woodruff, who first worked with the troupe in
the 1980s on a production of The Comedy of Errors at Chicago's Goodman
Theatre and then at Lincoln Center. For Life, Patterson points out,
Woodruff is functioning as an editor/cheerleader: "He pep-talked us and
told us to be hard on the shows because there are things in it that we
loved and were great pieces but weren't contributing."
Patterson continues, "We've gone on philosophical polemics through
the years, but the balance is there. We're talking about things that
are important to us and also keep it entertaining." Magid concurs. "I
think our biggest contribution to the world is to help bring amazement
and laughter and thought, and do some healing, and also wake people up
a little bit." And, of course, there's juggling, both literal and
metaphorical. But what happens if some of the concrete objects flung
skyward accidentally fall to the ground? Not a problem, says Patterson.
"It's funnier that way."
The Flying Karamazov Brothers' Life: A Guide for the Perplexed
(Convention Edition) is presented July 21 through August 8 by the
American Repertory Theatre at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street
in Harvard Square. Tickets are $25 to $45; call (617) 547-8300, or
visit www.amrep.org
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