City of Clowns

The Complex, Dublin

City of Clownsis an ugly, industrial place, all concrete walls and cardboard structures. Out of one such structure, a red-nose clown (Raymond Keane) emerges in a simple, playful opening sequence that signals what is to come.

Devised by Keane himself, City of Clownsis object theatre, where everyday props are transformed to provide the dramatic action: a banana becomes a microphone, a small box a baby, while a handyman's coat enables the clown, Fibril to take on a new identity.

Keane is as rangy and deft as ever in his physical performance, his silver hair and grey-lined face visually mirroring the tone set by Ciaran O'Melia's spartan set and lights and Trevor Knight's subtly clanking industrial score. However, Keane's tendency to vocalise the narrative and his emotional responses at key moments suggest a lack of confidence in clowning itself as a storytelling medium.

One of the most basic clowning exercises involves the complex act of doing nothing; the lesson revealing how much can be expressed by being still. But in City of Clownsthere are not enough revealing moments of reflection. We understand that Fibril is a prisoner in some post-apocalyptic place who is attempting to distract himself from his crippling loneliness through play, but we have no idea who Fibril really is beyond his simple party tricks.

In the final 10 minutes, however, an epic twist transforms City of Clownsfrom a slight, 40-minute one-man show into a more profound theatrical experience. To reveal the nature of that twist would ruin the effect for potential audience members, but suffice it to say that in the last 10 minutes we are shown the true expressiveness and diversity of the clown.

– Runs until Saturday