...and charts a bizarre odyssey through crumbling empires, comic misadventures and the 20th Century's darkest episodes, revealing the loves, the brutalities, the ecstasies and the tragedies beneath his seven white masks in an epic, poetic, profoundly moving tale.
Justin Butcher, award winning author of Breaking Strain, The Madness of George Dubya and A Weapons Inspector Calls, teamed up with solo-show maestro, Guy Masterson -veteran director of 10, performer of 6 and presenter of 40 solo works over 15 years - finally to take the role he originally penned for himself in 2000 but which was first made famous by Pete Postlethwaite's beautiful internationally acclaimed performance directed by West End wunderkind, Rupert Goold.
Never before seen in Edinburgh, Scaramouche Jones became a phenomonom... an undoubted hit of the Fringe and one of the most talked about performances.
Scaramouche Jones IS theatre, pure and simple: A glorious story sumptuously told. profoundly moving... powerful yet enchanting. A sublime evening.
Justin Butcher gives what is almost certain to be the finest performance on the Fringe this year as his own creation, a centenarian clown. He is helped by playing in a more compact space than Pete Postlethwate used in London some years ago for the same role.
Scaramouche Jones is both the inheritor of the Commedia dell'Arte mantle of his namesake and an unofficial chronicler of the first half of the Twentieth Century, from a proud, English perspective.
Starting with his character's birth in Trinidad as the century dawned, Butcher is magical, revealing the seven white masks that together symbolise this sensitive man's colourful life.
The highlights include growing up with a gypsy prostitute mother, apprenticeship to an educated, Anglophile snake charmer from Somalia and, movingly, a job in a concentration camp which leads to an appearance at the Nuremburg trials.
Scaramouche Jones is a masterpiece of solo Magic Realism, impeccably written, perfectly performed and well directed by Guy Masterson. It should be seen here, if possible, and is bound to tour.
Philip Fisher (British Theatre Guide)
It is a rare opportunity to watch a writer act out his own play when the creation and implementation are equally brilliant. Justin Butcher 's play had its world premiere in Dublin seven years ago when Pete Postlethwaite played Scaramouche. Apparently, the play still is touring around the world, having been translated into five languages. This is the play's debut in Edinburgh.
This is the first collaboration between Butcher and Masterson, although they tried twice unsuccessfully to bring another Butcher play to the fringe. Playwright/actor and director were able to start anew, making this production a fresh and wondrous experience. It is nothing short of enchanting. This staging is riveting, an odessy of human adventure across half the world.
Butcher's performance is spellbinding. He thrusts around the stage in dramatic fashion without a wasted motion. With wonderful make-up and costume, Butcher's character often seems larger than life.
The set is captivating and Butcher uses it to full effect. It is not surprising that the production was directed by Guy Masterson, because quality shines throughout.
Rarely have production values ever been so high in a one man show. The audience was rapturous, not wanting the performance to end. This show is the best one hander seen by this reviewer over the last 21 years, demonstrating what the fringe is all about when at its best.
It is an epic one man show, a rare occurrence having one actor travel such imaginary distances. As a one hander, it stands out as the best of the genre, a testament to what can be accomplished by one person under able direction. In short, it's magic from the start with the clown's bows and entrance through to the narration of life's great adventures.
Scaramouche Jones may be an early show, but it's not to be missed. In fact, it is a perfect way to start a festival day.
Kerry 4 (fringrereview.com 07/08/08)
A clown, battered and bruised across the whole of the twentieth century, finally breaks his silence
Midnight on the last day of the year nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and Scaramouche Jones is waiting to die. Breaking a fifty-year silence, his swansong is an account of his life, which spans the entirety of the previous century. Perhaps the beauty of this play for a largely British audience lies in its insistence on the enduring quality of the British Empire and the comforting awareness of a certain stability that goes along with it.
In a maelstrom of misfortune and suffering, the most important thing to the young Scaramouche is that his father is an Englishman. Here performed by the playwright himself, Scaramouche Jones is a perfect boys' own vagabond story of rags-to-riches, or at least rags-to-a greater understanding of the world. As Scaramouche is battered, blown and knocked about at the hands of fate between The West Indies, Africa and Europe his experiences and ordeals crystallise into the form of white masks, marking him forever.
Butcher's performance is well-measured and physically entertaining, evoking far-off bazaars and each colourful character with skill. The clown-figure has always been, as Scaramouche notes, a tragic as well as a comic performer, hovering between worlds, at once observing and at the centre of the action. As Scaramouche is cast away from home, beaten by gypsies and sold into slavery, so he witnesses the great events of the world as the terrible twentieth century unfolds. This play has not lost its huge variety of charms, and its Edinburgh début is long overdue.
Lucy Jackson (FEST 3/08/08)
The tale of Scaramouche Jones, a clown on the cusp of death, sees an aging performer tell of the adventures, trials and tribulations of his life. Set on the eve of the millennium, Scaramouche recounts his last 99 years, taking us across continents and oceans and introducing us to Arab traders, African snake charmers and Italian princes. Justin Butcher's performance is energetic and animated, and his crazed eyes hold your attention well. The writing (also by Butcher) is well crafted, perhaps overly so, and the rambling plot is delightfully implausible. Indeed so unbelievable is the tale that one wonders if Scaramouche's monologue is in fact one last performance; a final conjuring trick of fantasy, rather than the unmasking of the truth.
Yet Scaramouche's tale has a darker side, his makeup covering a life of tragedy and pain. From the outset we learn of his gypsy mother, a "bottomless receptacle for the semen of many nations" selling herself to sailors in Trinidad. Buffeted by fate, like some modern day Odysseys or Candide, Scaramouche is exposed to many of the horrors of the twentieth century; decaying Empires, slavery and genocide all making appearances. It is only his pale clown-like skin which alleviates some of his misfortune. Yet these events serve merely as misfortunes to the clown, and the play could have just as easily been set in the nineteenth century. While references to symbols of empire such as Elgar, Laurence of Arabia and Disraeli abound there is no serious attempt to comment on or satirize the many events Scarmouche's life touches. This would have added an edge to an otherwise sharp and well written play.
Neil Simpson (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine 13/08/08)
Scaramouche Jones is a superbly inventive monologue tracing the history of the 20th century from the viewpoint of a wandering circus clown born of a 'gypsy whore in Trinidad in 1899'. Jones is played with electrifying energy by the show's author, Justin Butcher.
Lloyd Evans - The Spectator - 20/08/08
Punters' Reviews
Completely mesmerizing - (03/08/08) - reviewer: Lindsey Goodman, United States
Justin Butcher, writer and actor, has just been added to my pantheon of performer personal heros (with percussionist Steve Schick and puppeteer Ronnie Burkett). This amazing one-man show had more words than the entire Ring Cycle, and yet the beautifully-crafted nature of each sentence and the absolute cellular-level ownership of the material on behalf of the actor made the play one of the most enthralling theatrical experiences of my life. Detailing the *incredibly* hard life story of the titled clown, its my favorite kind of narrative art: one which shows the goodness of humanity in the most unlikely of circumstances. I will most certainly see this show again, and I would pay 40 quid just to hear Justin read the phone book to me. Five undisputable stars.
Brilliant Performance - (06/08/08) - reviewer: Jules, Edinburgh
The best piece of theatre I have seen so far in this year's Fringe. A brilliant performance. Totally enthralling. Definitely a show that I have been recommending to everyone. Try not to miss it.
Powerful and moving - (09/08/08) - reviewer: Geoff Brown, UK
Brilliant from beginning to end. Powerful performance of a moving story with excellent acting and script.
Scaramouche Jones - (11/08/08) - reviewer: EdinburghStraightFringeCut, UK and Proud of it
I've seen several shows whilst in Edinburgh that reveal a life storyn (real or imagined) of some kind or another. However within seconds of the actor appearing on stage I was hooked. I felt an affinity to Scaramouche Jones immediatley. The way life beats you to a pulp and sends you on your way in no particular direction was central to this story as the hero of the piece stumbles his way through europe from egypt to the concentration camps of poland to wind up a clown is both moving and funny. I love listening to stories like this and the actors ability to tell it is just fantastic. Both energetic, and fascinating. I look foward to next years offerings.
Red Nose Day - (14/08/08) - reviewer: Basil, Sorrel, Parsley, UK
Superb! If you don't see anything else at this year's Fringe, see this one man show. This performance deserves a better venue though, as periodically a dance troupe took to the floor above and was a distraction from the magnificent dialogue.
Diverse and Entertaining - (15/08/08) - reviewer: Sean Davis, USA
On his hundredth birthday an unnaturally white faced man relates his well travelled life, from son of a Dominican Republic whore to an African snake charmer's assistant to Nazi concentration camp grave digger/clown. I marvel at how the writer successfully links the wildly diverse and entertaining chapters of his life. I must admit that when he had only told of his first fifty years, I was afraid that tales of the next fifty would make the play interminable, but, thankfully, he skips them. This ranks 16th of the 83 shows I have seen so far!
