Bouffon & Clown Workshop - The Female Body

Joy Unspeakable, Ordinary Glory theatre company’s touring show, explores themes of mental ill health, in particular female experiences of disordered eating, and ways in which society’s expectations of the female body and gender roles may contribute to this.

Led by Bouffon expert Briony O’Callaghan, this workshop is an invitation to find your inner (and outer) Bouffon and to play, mock, ridicule and mess about with social expectations of the female body. By playfully interrogating these ideas we will consider their impact on us and explore strategies of resistance.

Participants will: be led through ensemble and individual movement exercises; be led through clown games; learn about the origins and practice of Bouffon; consider the female body as a site of play, power and protest; use theatre games and exercises to create your own Bouffon incarnations, and take away your own Bouffon photographic portrait to keep.

Briony O’Callaghan is a director, performer, theatre-maker, teacher, writer and movement director who trained at the Lecoq school of theatre in Paris. Her interest lies in the grotesque, physical comedy and the exploration of personal hells. She is artistic director of Created a Monster as well as associate artist with Flabbergast and David Glass Ensemble. Her work has won an Offie for Best Show and The Pleasance Charlie Hartill Award. Briony regularly directs and teaches professionals as well as in UK drama schools/arts organisations including RADA, Rose Bruford, East 15 and Italia Conti.

This workshop is for women and non-binary folk who are 18 years +. No previous theatre experience is needed. You will need an open mind and a willingness to experiment, look silly, roll around on the floor a bit and take part in physical theatre exercises.

Tickets are £10 per person and places are limited.

Host or Publisher Ordinary Glory