A THOUSAND CLOWNS is a 1960s production that saw a two-year run on Broadway when it was first produced and probably thousands of performances since then in high schools and community theaters around the country.
It tells the story of an eccentric comedy writer who is forced to conform to society to retain legal custody of his nephew. Jason Robards starred in both the original Broadway version on stage and in the film. Martin Balsam won an Academy Award for his supporting performance in the movie.
Unemployed television writer Murray Burns is confronted with the modern angst of the workplace...maintain independence of thought and action as a man confronting the void every day, or succumbing to the banal life of a comedy writer for a children's show - Chuckles the Chipmunk - in order to satisfy society and a social system. The story takes a twist when, as is probably not the case in today's antiseptic bureaucratic governmental systems, our hero falls in love with the social service worker investigating why he's accused of being a deadbeat caretaker of his teenage nephew. Although Murray tries to avoid actually getting a job, he finds himself in a dilemma: if he wishes to keep his nephew, he must swallow his pride and go back to work. The rest of the play is about this compromise that Murray, as "Every-man," must make in order to survive.
This TRP production is lively, well-cast, and full of the pathos one would expect of this moral drama. It is ably anchored by Mark Mattison who has turned up in several plays I've photographed and has a knack for giving us characters that struggle with the essential questions of modern life.
It tells the story of an eccentric comedy writer who is forced to conform to society to retain legal custody of his nephew. Jason Robards starred in both the original Broadway version on stage and in the film. Martin Balsam won an Academy Award for his supporting performance in the movie.
Unemployed television writer Murray Burns is confronted with the modern angst of the workplace...maintain independence of thought and action as a man confronting the void every day, or succumbing to the banal life of a comedy writer for a children's show - Chuckles the Chipmunk - in order to satisfy society and a social system. The story takes a twist when, as is probably not the case in today's antiseptic bureaucratic governmental systems, our hero falls in love with the social service worker investigating why he's accused of being a deadbeat caretaker of his teenage nephew. Although Murray tries to avoid actually getting a job, he finds himself in a dilemma: if he wishes to keep his nephew, he must swallow his pride and go back to work. The rest of the play is about this compromise that Murray, as "Every-man," must make in order to survive.
This TRP production is lively, well-cast, and full of the pathos one would expect of this moral drama. It is ably anchored by Mark Mattison who has turned up in several plays I've photographed and has a knack for giving us characters that struggle with the essential questions of modern life.