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Sibling revelry
The Karamazov Brothers gear up for the DNC
BY SALLY CRAGIN

The inner life of clowns is endlessly fascinating. Think of Shakespeare — ("Alas, poor Yorick"), or Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. But what about real clowns? What happens when the slap-slap-slap of big shoes fails to elicit a smirk? According to Paul Magid, a founding member of the comedy troupe the Flying Karamazov Brothers ("Dmitri"), clowns have mid-life crises "worse than anybody." He’s speaking as the Karamazovs are about to bring Life: A Guide for the Perplexed (Convention Edition) to the Loeb Drama Center (it opens this Wednesday). "You never know when it’s coming on. I think it’s the accumulation of adulthood."

Anyway, after 30 years as a Flying Karamazov, Magid found he needed to reappraise his life. So he took his family to Italy and began reading A Guide for the Perplexed, by the 12th-century mystic/philosopher Moses Maimonedes. "People are still arguing about it. He wasn’t just a philosopher but also a religious Jewish man and a doctor, and he really believed you could not only have faith but that faith could be infused with rational thought. He used the ideas of the Greeks, which was hugely controversial and still is."

Maimonedes and his issues are at the heart of the show that Magid wrote in Italy. But Magid is still a Flying Karamazov at heart, so there’s plenty of juggling and zany props, including a new addition: the electronic instrument called the Juggletron, which is seven feet wide and features six octaves of MIDI-driven drum pads inside. "We’re in the center facing outward, and each of us commands an octave or more, so we can play anything we want while singing and juggling."

Another strand in the show is a send-up of Bollywood movies. "There’s a character from the ‘Mwabogitba,’ " says co-founder Howard Jay Patterson ("Ivan"). "That’s the ‘Men With A Bit Of Gray In Their Beards Association.’ " In the Mwabogitba Trilogy, Karamazov Brother Mark Ettinger ("Alexei") plays an Indian narrator who sings, juggles, and begins a ‘Lord Krishna’ tale while Magid plays the hero. "Paul has to fight the monster of his pasts and his own mistakes," Patterson explains.

Other cultural allusions loom large in Life. Roderick Kimball ("Pavel"). for example, will be illustrating Shakespeare’s "Seven Ages of Man" speech by juggling seven balls. (Elsewhere, the Brothers aim for quality, not quantity, of objects when they juggle. This they regard as a team sport.) But there’s also a political edge to this new show, which the Brothers are continuing to sharpen with the help of ART artistic director Robert Woodruff, who first worked with the troupe in the 1980s on a production of The Comedy of Errors at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and then at Lincoln Center. For Life, Patterson points out, Woodruff is functioning as an editor/cheerleader: "He pep-talked us and told us to be hard on the shows because there are things in it that we loved and were great pieces but weren’t contributing."

Patterson continues, "We’ve gone on philosophical polemics through the years, but the balance is there. We’re talking about things that are important to us and also keep it entertaining." Magid concurs. "I think our biggest contribution to the world is to help bring amazement and laughter and thought, and do some healing, and also wake people up a little bit." And, of course, there’s juggling, both literal and metaphorical. But what happens if some of the concrete objects flung skyward accidentally fall to the ground? Not a problem, says Patterson. "It’s funnier that way."

The Flying Karamazov Brothers’ Life: A Guide for the Perplexed (Convention Edition) is presented July 21 through August 8 by the American Repertory Theatre at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street in Harvard Square. Tickets are $25 to $45; call (617) 547-8300, or visit www.amrep.org


Issue Date: July 16 - 22, 2004
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