Playwrights: Devon de Mayo, Seth Bockley and La Piara ensemble members. At: La Piara at Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave. Tickets: 773-281-0824 or www.linkshall.org; $12-$15. Runs through: Aug. 4
Guerra: A Clown Play lasts just under an hour, but its cross-cultural performers and playwrights pack in a lot of material to look at war largely through a laugh-filled lens. Some might want a more serious and probing condemnation of war, but Guerra: A Clown Play seems to revel more on showing the funny and ironic side of military hierarchy and battle atrocities.
Guerra: A Clown Play was developed through an "On the Road" grant from Theater Communication Group as a collaboration by the Mexico City-based clown troupe La Piara (Artus Chavez Novelo, Fernando Cordova Hernandez and Madeleine Sierra Carrascal) and Chicago theater artists Seth Bockley and Devon de Mayo. The show was first performed onstage at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion via its "In the Works" series in March 2012, and has toured since then to festivals in New York, Albuquerque, N.M., and Mexico City.
A brief return engagement of Guerra: A Clown Play now at Links Hall in its new location at the former Viaduct Theater is made possible by Conaculta Mexico, and it's largely a happy occasion. The hard-working cast is constant delight, even when they're making light of some of the brutal realities of warfare.
On the surface, Guerra: A Clown Play doesn't look like it will amount to much. The mostly empty stage set consists of a desk, a filing cabinet, some office chairs and a flagpole.
Yet once the puffed-up Latin American general played by Artus Chavez Novelo and his multinamed subordinate played by Fernando Cordova Hernandez march in, the audience's laughter commences. Novelo plays his puffed-up general with a dashing air of self-importance (with a touch of effeminacy thrown in), while Hernandez is hilarious as the medal-coveting sidekick forever eagerly following the general's every command.
There are physical gags involving hoisting the nation's flag featuring its nationalistic X symbol (which is also emblazoned throughout the set), audible squeaking telephone conversations and even a military recruitment contest (which explains why the show's program is made available near the end of the show). It's all a lot of fun, and the playfulness of the cast is sure to bring a smile to your face.
One of my complaints is that all the antics seem more concerned with fun rather than fully tackling the implications of the show's title. The moments that are much more serioustouching upon torture, civilian deaths and post-traumatic stressare there, but they brush by so quickly in favor of the funny bits that they can feel undercut.
But if what you're mostly looking for is a fun time out, Guerra: A Clown play will definitely work as a brief display of fine comic acting and buffoonery. Let's be glad that the show has another chance to return to Chicago for another quick outing.