"We Have To See The Soul Of The Actor."

Katy, Tim, Lee, and Ben presented a number called The Fashion of the Christ in which they mocked the rich upper class catholic church figures for wearing flash jewelry and living expensive lives instead of living the way Jesus preached about. I featured in a cameo at the end as my latin-priest saying "Gucci, Versace, Dolce et Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, Armaaaaaniiii."

It wasn't clear what they were trying to say, and they didn't seem to sure exactly what they wanted to say either, and so it didn't work. 

"You blaspheme to say something to people. Not for nothing."

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Mike presented his Canadian Mayor number about the bicycles again, playing a serious method actor. But Philippe said "absolutely no... not Bouffon."

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Barbara presented a number in French as prostitute but Philippe said "c'est une merde."

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Duncan and Sam presented their number again with Sam in the trolley and Duncan pushing her in his straitjacket, this time more 'happy' - but it was too much. It wasn't really happy. It was hyper. And, understandably as they'd only learnt the text yesterday, they didn't know the text well enough.

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Christine presented a walk-by 'passage' number, in which she strolled across the stage smoking a cigar to the theme tune from The Godfather, and said "I'll give you a job, if you give me a blowjob." She was attacking Berlusconi. It was fun, and although it was really short we liked her...but Philippe said no.

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Vicky and Mia presented another iteration of their scene in which Vicky talks about the importance of teaching children strong morals...whilst whacking her over the head with a bible. Philippe said no saying that we love them in their Swiss scene, but here we don't love them, so it's unacceptable.

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Tim, as his transvestite, presented Philippe's text of "Forward, forward, take a look at the face of those who didn't come" in the style of a song at a bad cabaret. Philippe worked with Tim to be more simple, slow, and still, so that we can see him.

"We have to see the humanity...the beautiful face of this guy who suffered...we have to see the soul of the actor and not the beautiful idea...the beautiful idea is for idiots."

"The Bouffon is something fantastic from the soul of the actor."

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Sam and Lee presented their number in which Sam, as an AIDS patient in a trolley, speaks about the best day of her life to the music of 'When You Wish Upon A Star', whilst Lee goes through lots of ridiculous health and safety measures in the background.

It was funny because Lee undercut the sentimentality of Sam...but Philippe said that those who were laughing had bad taste and went on to prove it. He then led Lee to place the fake hand on the end of a long stick ("Sookie, will you hold my hand?") with real precision and care - not like the deliberately rough way it was done before.

"Every detail is well done to create something in the soul of the audience."

"We have to see the actor looking for something beautiful...everything has to be fantastic for us."

Philippe argued that before we were laughing at something crass, whilst now "we have an emotion." We see Sam and this sad image of her feeling the joys of human contact with a rubber glove on a stick and we feel something.

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Ben and Duncan presented a version of the 'Adam's masturbating' text in which they said their text fast and light to ild fashioned cabaret music whilst several Bouffons danced in the background. Every now and then a gun shot would bang and one of the Bouffons would drop to the floor dead. There was also a kind of Hitler figure upstage saying "that's no good, try harder" suggesting this performance was at a concentration camp and they were all trying to survive.

I was in this scene, and whilst we were rehearsing I was thinking it wasn't going to work because it was too much of an idea, but Philippe didn't mind it and suggested we work on it tomorrow in class. He actually said this or a few numbers, been though he had originally said there would be no showings on Friday.

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Yuichi presented a number about the lies in Japan.

He came on and shouted "Tsunami! Earthquake! Nuclear!" and then did an upbeat song and dance in Japanese about how the government are all liars. But he panicked half way through and didn't finish, and Philippe said no.

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Ben also tried playing the Fool from King Lear, who Philippe had said a while ago is a Bouffon character.

Ben had this "Hey Nunny Nunny" music, and spoke quite grand and royally whilst dressed like a jester. But Philippe said no because it was "too elegant."

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So many numbers presented on what we thought was the last day to present (which it basically was) but nothing got through. It is hard to present something of quality that is well thought out in a short amount of time! With pressure! But I suppose this is asked for in the 'real world' quite often...

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The show tonight was another good one. In fact our best so far. There was a really good feeling in the audience and everything ran particularly smoothly. Only one night to go until the end of the Bouffon workshop, and the end of two years at Gaulier for many people.