BARREL OF LAUGHTER

As the title suggests, this is an explosive mix of comedic story lines. The title barrel is a place, from which the actors produce loads of gags and unexpected props, so that one never knows what they are going to surprise the audience with next. The performance has a very perverse plot: the spectators become actors and the actors become spectators.

The “Barrel of Laughs” draws from the tradition of improv theatre, contemporary Russian clowning, and circus. A parody of circus performances, it features acrobatics, juggling, and riding a unicycle. It also includes taming wild animals, namely... the spectators themselves who are so involved in the performance that they obey all the commands of the tamer. A hypnotist also appears who uses his supernatural powers to make an unbreakable structure out of the spectators!

One of the episodes features a puppet that falls in love with someone from the audience but since its feelings are not reciprocated, it dies. In order to be able to function again, it needs help...

A spontaneous, funny, and gripping performance, it won the Main Prize at the Open-Air Theatre Festival in Biała Podlaska in 2006.