What an absolute privilege to see Thom Tuck as Scaramouche Jones, first performed in 2005, revived in 2015. Tuck has now pledged to return to the Fringe every ten years, until he approaches the age of his character, the one hundred-year-old clown who is a witness to history.
The setting is perfect. We are in an embroidered yurt, the sounds of conversation and street musicians occasionally wafting in through the fabric of the tent.
Thom Tuck, in clown wig and vivid smears of greasepaint, begins with a lurid account of the birth of Scaramouche and reveals the first of his secrets. Beneath his mask he is a real English gentleman – blessed with the advantages of a white skin – through an accident of birth.
Justin Butcher’s play is a multi-layered triumph of storytelling and Thom Tuck inhabits his part with extraordinary intensity.
We follow the story of Scaramouche from the Caribbean to the desert, see him beaten, imprisoned, enslaved and carried off by gypsies but never defeated. There are jokes about Latin grammar, exclamations in Arabic and philosophic reflections on human suffering and survival.
Tuck uses his painted white face as a mask – while also revealing the emotions of the character underneath. His face is mesmeric, his ability to flash between a myriad of expressions and to switch from comedy to tragedy in a heartbeat is uncanny.
In the course of the story, he travels from a child to a man, showing the transition with a simple visual trick, which makes his audience gasp as one.
The story of Scaramouche is also the story of the twentieth century, with all its tragedy, destruction and death. He is at the concentration camps, then at the Nuremberg trials and here, in the midst of the unimaginable suffering, he finds his true calling.
Scaramouche is stunning, comic, soulful and sad. An unforgettable Fringe experience. Do see it if you can.
Scaramouche Jones: 14:45 Hoots Yurt at Potterow, until August 25
