Laboratory of the Un-beautiful
A Bouffon & Grotesque Workshop for Womxn Theatre Makers

Dive deep into the world of the bouffon and the grotesque in this womxn-only weekend intensive. Hosted by  acclaimed theatre-makers & facilitators Robyn Hambrook & Deborah Antoinette.

Explore the wild and satirical play of the bouffon; rooted in mockery, parody and acid wit. By embracing the grotesque and un-beautiful, we will liberate our imaginations - unlocking the mad & surreal.

A must for anyone wanting to take their connection with and ideas for theatre work a little closer to a devilish cutting edge. Held so competently by both Deborah and Robyn whose professional experiences clearly came to the fore.”
Participant, Bristol Laboratory of The Un-Beautiful Weekend Intensive

OUR FOCUS:
This intensive is designed to foster a safe space for womxn to creatively explore their physicality, voice, presence and power.

The weekend starts with a sharing circle - reflecting together on how social prescription & patriarchal forces have affected us individually. We’ll invite reflections on lived-experiences such as: sisterhood/lack-of; self-image; power; consent; perception of femininity; Maiden-Motherhood-Crone phases; as well as opening to what themes emerge from the group of womxn present. We'll continue on to dive into learning Bouffon tools.

TOOLS:

• Embodiment: using shape, movement & voice to explore “the feminine”
  
• The group body & collective movement
• Status & hierarchy
• Grotesque emotion
  
• ‘Stuffing’/changing body shape & moving the ‘full body mask’
• Relationship to the audience
• Parody, mockery & absurdity - on social issues

As you can see from the tools list, the theatrical form of Bouffon lends itself to an exploration of the distortion of feminine power within our cultural & political experience.
Create performance which is enlivening, honest & your own.

RANGE:
This laboratory is a creative exploration. We invite participants to draw on their personal experience, and we’ll share our own where supportive to the process. This inner work will be source material for artistic expression. The workshop is not a therapeutic space, but a space which seeks to honour & support your personal reflection. Deborah has trained in Systemic Constellations (Family Constellations) and both Robyn & Deborah have extensive experience facilitating theatre workshops which hold space for personal process as part of creative practice.

WHO'S THIS FOR?
All who identify as womxn are welcome.

This course is suitable for clowns, actors and performers interested in broadening their repertoire and exploring feminist issues in their work.

If you’re not sure if your level of experience would support you to join this workshop, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to help & discuss  if the workshop would be right for you.

How it works

Dates & times:
Saturday 15th February - 10 - 6:30pm
Sunday 16th February - 10 - 5pm

Venue:
The Spark Space
138a Church Road
Redfield
Bristol
BS5 9HH

Application & investment:
To apply please fill in this form by 3 February 2025:
https://forms.gle/BNmRXZhRV9msZUvj6

Once invited; the course investment is:
£190 - Supporter/ High earner
£175 - Full Price
£150 - Concession (low/no income, student)
EARLYBIRD DEAL: get £20 off if you pay before 17 January

Apply to take part

★"An amazing exploration of physicality, tapping into ugliness and taboo. Really affirming and beautiful connections with other women and non-binary folks, questioning and mocking constructions of gender and what it is to be pretty, good, or acceptable. A great starting point for understanding bouffon and what it can be. Heaps of fun!" ~Zoe, Theatre maker & Creative Arts Therapist, Online Laboratory of The Un-Beautiful 2021

★ “I knew I just NEEDED it when I saw the description!! I have experience in clown but I really needed something to shake me up and I'd never done Bouffon. The fact that it was centered on women, connected with themes I've been investigating and living! Exploring ourselves and the idea of femininity through play, wholeheartedly delighting in dark, sticky bits.” Participant, London Laboratory of The Un-Beautiful Afternoon

★“I was inspired by the obvious knowledge and experience of Deborah and Robyn in taking participants on a journey of embodied explorations! It met my need to experience a workshop that takes these topics (such as patriarchy) into the body and plays with them as a radical act that has the power to shift thinking and experiencing. I was keen to learn and engage with theatrical devices and exercises that could support these explorations, of which there were plenty here.” Participant, Bristol Laboratory of The Un-Beautiful Weekend Intensive

★"A super safe space to explore Bouffon for womxn" Rebecca, theatre-maker, Online Laboratory of The Un-Beautiful 2021

About the facilitators

Deborah Antoinette is a writer-performer, storyteller & trainer with over a decade of experience. She facilitates transformational workshops which invite participants to discover their unique creative voice & body.For Deborah, stories hold the potential for deep healing, and comedy offers an irreverent unveiling of the absurd ways the world can be. She digs into myths, flies with the magic of fairytale and revels in writing theatre sketches that shake-shit-up.
Her explorations of story and Self extend to the realm of Systematic Constellations - a collective healing practise which focuses on our personal stories and seeks movement where relationships and narratives become stuck. She is the co-creator of comedy show 'Queen C**t: Sacred or Profane?', movement show 'Raven' and she tells the stories of 'Inanna', 'Sacred Bees', 'Owl Woman' and more - many of which hold feminist themes.
Deborah trained  in the Lecoq pedagogy at London International School of Performance Art, now Arthaus Berlin, with Thomas Prattki & Amy Russel.

Robyn Hambrook is a Bristol-based director, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring clown teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Bim Mason, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Lucy Hopkins and John Wright.
Robyn has run workshops in corporate, community, education and humanitarian settings for companies including Clown Me In, Let's Circus, Impact Arts, Islington People's Theatre, Active Inquiry and in tertiary education for the University of Bristol, UWE, Circomedia and Circus Central. As a director Robyn has collaborated with international circus theatre companies including Let’s Circus, The Sexual Health Circus and Whispering Wood Folk and performed with acclaimed physical theatre companies including, Derevo, Akhe, Oceanallover, and Gappad as well as her own award-winning company, Fun in the Oven Theatre.
During the pandemic in 2020, Robyn set up The Online Clown Academy with Holly Stoppit  and in 2023 set up the Bristol Clown School. Her ongoing research explores the political possibilities of clowning by creating collaborative research spaces, testing and pushing the limits of the artform to create new knowledge and methodologies for the industry. Recent projects include the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy (5-day Activist Clown Training) and the Clown Congress (annual gathering of clowns, activists & academics collectively exploring what it means to be a clown in this current era).
With this drive to explore political edges of her work she has also dived back into the world of the Bouffon; training with Jaime Mears, Nathaniel Justiniano, Tim Licata, Al Seed and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier.