Costumes are a huge part of this fashion forward show – by swiss absurdist clown Paulina Lenoir.
At one point she is wearing a corset, then a dress made entirely of gloves. She swims underwater beneath a wafting sheet of gauze. There are enormous wigs, outrageous hair pieces and glorious bows. Suddenly she becomes a tiny baby – next minute she is a giant.
Lenoir beams brightly, winks and flirts with the audience. But she’s also likely to become coquettish, to boil over with rage, to convulse suddenly with uncontrollable emotion.
Her subject is simple, the passing of time, from birth, to childhood to old age. The clock ticks, the heart beats. Life, like fashion, passes quickly from one thing to another.
Lenoir involves the audience at key points in her story. She is breastfed, she takes drugs, she goes to a disco – all with the help of volunteers. She speaks very little – tiny snatches of dialogue – mime – and of course, costume changes, carry the story of a life.
It’s big, bold, beautiful and colourful. And Lenoir, with a big beaming smile and crazy eyes, illuminates both the absurdity and the wonder of the different stages of life. It’s very very funny – and will make you fall in love with the creative, inventive and utterly delightful Paulina Lenoir.
Paulina Lenoir: Puella Eterna: 22.00, Assembly Roxy, until August 25
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/paulina-lenoir-puella-eterna
