Broken plates.- 11/05/2008.

Teatre La Unió.- Sant Cugat del Vallès.- Barcelona.
Marcel Barrera, El Punt Diari.

One of the great risks faced by the eccentrics clowns, in general, is if they react in an exaggerated way and end up in a mess and lose all artistic and aesthetic sense. We can say that the jokes must be played cleverly. Sylvestre (Josep Ventura), one of the members, along with Marceline Kahn and Zaza (Didier Armbruster) of the trio of Los Excéntricos French Catalan clowns, has sometimes explained that when he took classes with his master, Rogelio Rivel, he learnt not to go over the top with his jokes to avoid making it seeming too much like cartoons and to control a certain timing. All this, that is so easy to say but so difficult to do, has been achieved by all three performers. The 1rst surprise is in the first half an hour. Rather calm, perhaps even relaxed, with moments of poetry frankly achieved with that of the string puppet skeleton that dances, laughs, becomes crazy and goes up to the accordion that Marceline is playing. A moment to keep in our memory... Splendid. But this is not what is expected from the group, as it normally uses slapstick. As the show progressed, it becomes more and more frenzied. The act of the diva, with a wonderful Marceline, is unbeatable and proves that with all the things that seem so simple –to tune a “Re” note in la Vie en Rose – these clowns can end up declaring a world war. Zaza is an excellent counter point to the theatrical and conceited role of Marceline –reminding us a little of the Castafiore of Tintín– and the excellent clown Sylvestre. Zaza’s laugh makes him a grotesque character; the kind that we don’t see anymore, and the act with the glass of cava on the piano, when Marceline and Sylvestre have completely become exhausted and crazy, is an anthology. The act of the Chinese plates, which closes the performance, is hilarious thanks to the real breaking of plates and a song with words in the style of Gaby, Fofó and Miliki. A great discovery. The night was special. The artists thanked the theatre La Unió Santcugatenca for having loaned them a space for 8 months to rehearse this highly recommendable show and that can be seen soon at the Circo Price in Madrid and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya.
Marcel Barrera, El Punt Diari.