As if reading my mind, Nick Trotter, as Ferdinand the Magnificent, seemed to say, “you want la follie, you got it!” I have never witnessed the physical embodiment of Rabelaisian clown before I saw Ferdinand. How else to describe a 6'-plus creature in a pink spandex bodysuit, a huge white diaper, hiking boots, a nose to rival that of Toucan Sam, and a tendency to pull things out of his ass?
In his 30-or-so minutes, Ferdinand plays both desperate puppy looking for a home and coquettish dandy looking to impress his new friends. He can be quite aggressive with us, but in a way that is mostly safe and charming. He also has a talent for making music with found objects, most of which he pulls out of the backside of that diaper of his. Trotter the performer manages to take his own musical skills and work them pretty seamlessly into Ferdinand's being as a sort of lovable musical savant that you'd be a little scared to piss-off.
What keeps Ferdinand with us, for all of his bigness (both literal and aesthetic) is his wonderful naivete. Ferdinand is a musical, highly functioning autistic on speed. Strange things happen to him. They're probably stranger for us than for him – I have the feeling that this is not the first time that Ferdinand found a bottle of Penzzoil in his rectum and then discovered the bottle was full of Froot-Loops.
His complete innocence allows one to float into weird sexual double-images, without him ever going there. When he pulls a bell out of his seemingly endless well of treats, he pins it to the waistband of his diaper, allowing him to ring it with his body as he discovers the sound and gyrates to a rhythm he develops. As he shakes his hips and moves his feet, smiling naively to the audience, I am reminded of some character from a Bosch painting, or an image from Rabelais – a giant with matching giant phallus-like nose, tinkling the tiny jewels in his crotch. It is weird. It is also very well executed.
Ferdinand has no problem with motivation, in terms of stakes. This weird, wingless, overgrown flamingo is motivated! He tackles it all with great appetite! (I'd like to see even more!) The small problem with his show is the first kind of motivation: why is Ferdinand here? What does he hope to accomplish? Right now, it seems like he's passing through. For a while, I don't care why he's here, because his images & games are so compelling & entertaining, I forget. But towards the end, I start to feel stuck in a loop. Ferdinand does not yet have a story that will lead either of us to transformation.
His games are great. Better than great. But I want to see this weirdo in a situation that challenges and transforms both him and us. That's the holy grail of clown shows. And it's worth Ferdinand exploring it. So, I look forward to see Ferdinand in a show with a proper beginning, middle, and end. In the meantime, you should catch it in its current incarnation, so you can say you were there.
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