Writer: Justin Butcher
Director: Ian Talbot
Justin Butcher’s 2002 play Scaramouche Jones is a very tall tale indeed, an international adventure story that zips around the world in an anecdote-filled 100-minute production. Revived by Stream Theatre, this one-man play covers the life story of a clown whose very white face and self-identification as an Englishman takes him on a jaunt through the history of the twentieth century and its people.
It is 31 December 1999 and precisely 100 years after his birth, the clown Scaramouche Jones has reached the final night of his life. With only a video camera for company, he revisits his life story one last time, starting with his childhood in Trinidad in a joint fishmonger-brothel where he is rescued by Missionaries, sold to slaves, becomes the object of an Italian Prince’s affection, then a Nazi gravedigger and eventually an entertainer when he finally reaches England.
Despite his garrulous and poetic turn of phrase, Scaramouche Jones is really an observer of his own life and the events of the last century. He has almost no agency whatsoever and his movement around the world is driven by others who shape and determine the next stage of his life, either purchasing, rescuing or liberating him. Likewise, this travel story occurs against a backdrop of great events – the development of the Dreadnought, the First and Second World Wars and Festival of Britain – in which the Clown-to-be plays no deterministic part.
The fascination with England connects it all, believing his father to be an Englishman and, receiving an English education from his snake-charming owner, Scaramouche’s unusually white face has formed his identity and become his passport around the world. His Trinidadian birth and various adventures feel like they should build to a comment on imperialism, yet Butcher stops short when his character finally arrives in London and the tale runs out of steam before the character’s obsession with his nationality and skin colour can be taken to its conclusion.
Directed by Ian Talbot, this Stream Theatre production allows Butcher’s evocative language to take centre stage as the character vividly describes the incredible people he meets as the audience is whipped from the bustling New Year celebrations in Port of Spain to a Venice masked ball, a lengthy sea voyage across the Atlantic, gypsy caravans in Italy and the Nuremberg trials, all aided by Harry Regan’s evocative sound design that nudges the audience’s imagination at just the right moment.
Without a theatre audience, playing into the video camera is a smart approach and gives Scaramouche a purpose and focus for his revealing his tale. Talbot also employs three or four other cameras to give wider shot selection and variation while showcasing Andrew Exeter’s black and red dressing room bunker designer where the action takes place.
Shane Ritchie builds on his previous experience playing Archie Rice giving Scaramouche a shabby Music Hall flavour that suits his preposterous autobiography. Butcher’s sometimes uneven script – which never questions whether Scaramouche is telling the truth – makes the emotional middle section less affecting than perhaps it might be, yet alone onstage Ritchie utilises an extraordinary array of accents to convincingly create the wider cast of international characters without losing his grasp on the Clown as a continuous character.
Scaramouche Jones is a slightly imperfect play that doesn’t quite pay off on its investment with an over-hasty ending and themes that feel incompletely addressed, but this is a long monologue and Ritchie maintains an impressive energy throughout, preventing the seven chapters from feeling too episodic and absorbing the audience in this extraordinary life story.
Runs here until 11 April 2021