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| Sunday, 7 November 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Clowns go to war Where weapons have spoken, the sufferings of children are great. In 1994, a French organisation, Clowns Sans Frontieres, decided to respond to horror with pleasure and laughter.
This is the aim of the French organisation, Clowns Sans Frontiers - to provide an unusual form of humanitarian aid, on a child's scale... For a little over ten years, more than four hundred and fifty artists have put on their make-up and paraded in size 45 shoes to tumble into crisis situations, from South America (Guatemala, Costa Rica and Argentina) to the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza), Asia, the Balkans and Africa (Algeria and Rwanda). In all these countries, with the support of the French Association for Artistic Action (Afaa), local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and French cultural centres (CCF), the ephemeral troupe of Clowns sans Frontiers works to offer a comic show to a young audience with little access to fun and games. Created The organisation was created in 1994, the idea of a musician, Antonin Maurel, with sponsorship from some big names in the French art world. The undertaking is supported by the hard work and good humour of circus artists, musicians, volunteer actors, students from the Ariane Mnouchkine drama school and actors from Peter Brook's company, who agree to perform free of charge - between engagements - for kids often deprived of their childhood. In situations of extreme tension, how do you find the actions or the right words to raise a laugh? Indeed, the receptions, especially from adults, can sometimes be a little frosty at first... It is easy to criticise, as an editorial writer on the daily newspaper Oslobodjenie, in former Yugoslavia, did heading his article: After the UN negotiators. Europe sends us clowns" On the side of life Even though the members of Clowns sans Frontieres put their sporadic activities into perspective, they do take pleasure in the modest effect they can have. How could anyone not be moved by the children's smiles or their games after the inevitable distribution of red noses? "The audience may vary from one place to another" says Luc Briard, CCF director in Gaza, "but it quickly senses the commitment of the artists who put on a really professional show and even adults allow themselves to be won over. We are not on the side of politics, says Antonin Maurel, "but on the side of the children, on the side of laughter and of life." An`d to establish the work of the clowns as a regular part of life, they are now perpetuating their activities by going back regularly to visit the same countries and setting up introductory arts of creative performance workshops, as is the case in Madagascar, and soon, in India, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Myanmar. A vast stage for a theatre company without frontiers. Courtesy Label France |
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| Produced by Lake House |
It doesn't take a lot to put up the set. In the narrow alleyways of the
Deir el Balah camp in Gaza (Palestine), in the midst of bombed-out flats,
the grey of the shaking concrete blocks and the endless faces of martyrs,
all you need is a red curtain, a chequered cap, a tiny cycle and a red
nose to captivate the audience. Suddenly, hundreds of pairs of young eyes
are distracted from the Gaza Strip.
