Sad Clown (2024)

Performance (20 minutes)

Sad Clown is an emotional excavation that bridges the absurd and the profound, using the timeless figure of the clown as a vessel for collective release. Inspired by Emmet Kelly’s iconic sad clown, with a drag-infused twist, Clara Saito’s clown is both a relic of tradition and a modern disruptor, blending theatricality with raw humanity. The makeup becomes a transformative mask, an emblem of exaggerated sorrow that transcends time, rooted in the haunting beauty of bygone vaudeville and the radical self-expression of drag.

The performance unfolds as a dynamic interplay between structured spectacle and raw emotional exchange. Lip-syncing, an act both deeply performative and intensely personal, becomes a conduit for channeling grief, joy, and longing. These moments are juxtaposed with somatic practices that invite the audience into the clown’s world, breaking the fourth wall in cathartic communion. Together, audience and performer scream their sadness away, releasing a collective weight that words alone cannot carry.

Grounded in the turbulence of our times, Sad Clown confronts the inescapable sadness brought by today’s crises, personal, political, and environmental. The clown’s struggle mirrors our own: how do we navigate grief, despair, and uncertainty in a way that propels us forward rather than paralyzing us? The piece invites us to sit with our sorrow, not to wallow but to witness and transform it into resilience and bring it to the streets!

Through its reinterpretation of burlesque and the clown tradition, Sad Clown reclaims the stage as a space for vulnerability and rebellion. Moving between presence and detachment, humor and heartache, Clara Saito’s performance redefines what it means to laugh and cry in a world on fire.

In Sad Clown, sadness isn’t just an emotion; it’s an energy. One that can be screamed, danced, and sung into a strange, hopeful freedom.