OMELETTEMACHINE proves a rather unique piece of clowning at VAULT Festival
“Why wasn’t I left in the eggshell?”
If you were wondered what it might be like to be in an audience singalong to ABBA and Queen whilst a man butchers a chicken in front of you, then OMELETTEMACHINE is the show for you. A physical clowning piece, in the Bouffon style, it takes any expectations you might have and ensures they’re thoroughly scrambled (or poached, or fried…) through its wild ride.
It is undoubtedly a challenging show to unpick. According to creator and performer Tommaso Giacomin, it “uses different dramaturgical layers to explore a semi-autobiographical narrative that aims to deconstruct family trauma, by butchering one of the most famous plays of all time: Hamlet”. It also comes with a warning that it’s not suitable for vegans and to avoid the front rows due to its liberal way with raw chicken carcasses and at least a dozen eggs.
At just over 30 minutes, it proves a remarkably dense show. There are moments of levity, you really never know what is going to come out of the next bucket, feathers or the offer of an actual omelette, a remote controlled car or rivers of chicken blood. There’s pseudo-disturbing moments with mallets, canned eggs puns aplenty, personal diarising, and the peeling back of physical as well as psychological layers.
The cumulative effect is somewhat bewildering. As boundaries are broached and drumsticks doled out, Giacomin’s character of butcher Mike never quite becomes fully fledged, the storytelling perhaps intentionally blurred but losing some impact with it. He’s a highly expressive performer though and able to to connect in a compelling way with his audience – you can see people contemplating saying yes to a bag of chopped up chicken bits.
