The dream begins before James Thiérrée, artistic
director and star of “The Junebug Symphony,” even steps
out of his clothes and into his bed. This wild concoction of
enchanting music and physical stunts are held together by one
magical key element: hilarity.
Dreams like these could only come out of a mind like
Thiérrée’s, who grew up in the theater performing
with parents Jean Baptiste Thiérrée and Victoria Chaplin,
renowned circus performers across Europe and America.
Adapting subtle physical comedy with exotic costuming and simple
set techniques, the show is both complex and graceful, barring a
few chaotic moments. Thiérrée uses simple comedic tropes,
such as confusing doorways and mirror tricks, just as elegantly as
he handles flying trapeze stunts and violinists on roller skates.
His simple humor reaches back to the times of Vaudeville and
reveals traces of the inevitable influence of his maternal
grandfather, the legendary Charlie Chaplin.
The show opens with bedtime rituals and the ominous buzzing of
insects, but that’s pretty much the end of any realism. In
the following scenes, Thiérrée takes the audience into
his living room where people are plants and paintings and furniture
hold court.
Using mainly a four-person cast, the show features simple
characters who are vaguely established only to be twisted into new
and even stranger elements. The show’s stars provide an
entertaining balance of physical agility, operatic voice and
slapstick comedy.
Perhaps the most compelling member of the cast is Raphëlle
Boitel, a contortionist and acrobat who moves like liquid across
the stage’s sets and uses everything from a chandelier to a
red carpet as a gymnastic apparatus for performing seemingly
impossible bends of the human body.
The talent of the cast is also emphasized by the simplicity of
the set and how cleverly it is used. Each piece is transformed
somehow by those who utilize it, and the entire set even becomes a
battle ground for fantastic mythical beasts by the end of the
show.
Although the show is mainly wordless, influxes of modern jazz
and classical European musical scores help to create a sense of
timeless fantasy embodied by the show.
Despite all these delicate elements, the most important reason
to experience “The Junebug Symphony” is to see truly
great physical comedy in action. The show transcends national and
cultural boundaries with universal notions of comedic genius.
Thiérrée lives up to his incredible genes as he
continues the tradition of great comedy that is truly unique.
-Alexis Matsui