Horsing and Clowning Around: The Dangers of High Horses
Oopsy Daisy, Zip Zap Zop, and Robert bring on a special guest, Horse, to star in their newest episode of Clowning Around! Together, they explore Horse’s gender identity and journey. Horsing and Clowning Around is a comedic look at how we tell queer stories and who controls our narratives.
I wasn't expecting to laugh & cry during this play, but I did, several times. The writing was very clever (loved the ads) and thought provoking (Robert had me crying several times).
Hope the performers keep working on their craft & come back next year.
The performers took the audience on a journey…we were the live audience of a children’s tv show and privy to behind the scenes drama. The show has an important message that can get heavy, there were moments of sadness and shock that drew the audience in. Then we were given levity with bits of humour, chaos and commercial breaks! The back and forth created a nice balance and enjoyable show! Congrats to the artists involved!
Horsing And Clowning Around: The Dangers of High Horses is full of chuckles, chaos, colour and clowns and was a great time.
We follow clowns Oopsy Daisy, Robert, and Zip Zap Zop as they bring trans guest star Horse onto their TV show, Clowning Around, and attempt to tell the story of how he discovered his gender identity.
The show is wonderfully colourful with bright makeup and clothing. Props were dramatic and silly in a way that complemented the clownish tone. The dialogue in the show is very funny and littered with queer references that added to the show’s charm. Today, the issue of people sharing stories that do not belong to them is as relevant as ever, the script sheds light on the topic in a graceful and personal way that packs a punch. A person’s story is their own to tell or to hold onto.
Hilarious, relevant, campy, go see Horsing And Clowning Around: The Dangers of High Horses this Fringe.
while the script could probably benefit from a little revise, Horsing and Clowning Around delivers a very important message in the form of a fun after-school-special-esque children’s show. a fun watch for horses and clowns.
Must see show!! You gotta go see it for yourself!! Actors worked hard and did a great job!
I liked this show quite a lot! It was super funny and I was having a great time. I thought that the idea of having the play separated between "real-life" and on set and filming, made for a more complex and interesting experience. I liked the informative monologs dispersed throughtout the performance because it gave off a more authentic "kids show" feel that helped keep comedy present while touching on important topics. You can tell a lot of work and passion for theater went into this production and I hope you go see it!
This show was so full of heart!! Seeing young people be so acutely aware of issues facing the queer and trans community while also being hilariously in tune with pop culture was so phenomenal. The children's TV show format was a really well utilized backdrop for the content. Metaphors are good to get an audience thinking, but when the subject matter is trans youth action should be taken immediately, hence the clowns telling us exactly what was going on. I loved the audience engagement and the costumes and props were to die for! Me and my friends had such a fantastic time watching this and I would recommend it 10 times over!
This was a tough watch for me. To be totally honest, I think if you’re going to talk up your show as a clown show, there needs to be more to the clowning than face paint and costumes. I felt like the characters were presented to us as very typical clowns, but without a lot of the gags or bits or exaggerated performance you might associate with clowning.
They spent a lot of time establishing a kind of autobiographical episode of an after school special on gender. But aside from “camera off” moments and some sometimes-funny commercials, I felt like there wasn’t a very clear throughline and I wondered why this format for this message.
I’ve said many times that I do not like didactic dialogue. I felt every time I was starting to get interested in the relationship between these characters, it would be interrupted by a PSA-style lecture.
I wanted more from this. I wanted to see characters actually get developed or a plot that could show us the thesis instead of interrupting every few minutes to tell us.
The show ended up running under its official runtime, but the pacing of the show and the disappointing script had me feeling like it had run over.
An important coming out, coming of age story of queer clowns finding community that I didn't quite connect with.