Review: BOORISH TRUMPSON, VAULT Festival

The first part of Boorish Trumpson, a solo show by Lecoq-trained clown Claire Parry, is an introduction to the title character, who neither feels like Boris Johnson nor Donald Trump.

Trumpson is introduced as the last-minute rehearsal conductor for the orchestra as they prepare for the final night of BBC Proms, "the world's greatest classical music festival" at Royal Albert Hall. The audience becomes the orchestra, with Trumpson preparing to conduct them and take over as the official conductor, usurping Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE.

If you are not a fan of audience participation, you should definitely not go to Boorish Trumpson. Even with the warnings in the show's description of "audience interaction" and the fact that Trumpson "plays with the audience," I still felt I was unprepared for the level of interaction that took place throughout.

Parry clambers over audience members, yells at those who need to get up and leave, and will simply stop the show and force the audience member to interact, regardless of how uncomfortable they may be. One poor audience member, in particular, was selected to be Trumpson's assistant and had to come up on stage to move around the conductor's music stand, being ridiculed every step of the way. Others are given instruments and at one point are forced to stand for the rest of the show, playing when Trumpson points at them with his baton.

The show's description on the VAULT Festival website claims that it "creates a raucous humour whilst the bigger questions bubble below." Unfortunately, instead of bubbling below, these bigger questions were left unsaid but the innuendos towards them were right in the face of the audience, sometimes quite literally. One particular metaphor ran on for quite longer than necessary, in which Trumpson asks the orchestra to vote on whether they want a break to go eat the carrot cake that is supposedly located in the foyer. Parry continues to hammer the metaphor of the break being Brexit into audience members' heads with quotes like "Break means break" and "I feel like I've been stuck in break for over 6 ½ years."

Indeed, none of the metaphors in Boorish Trumpson are subtle. As an American, I picked up on most of Parry's Trump-like references and may have missed some of her references to British politics and Boris Johnson, but even then I felt like I was being overwhelmed. Trumpson is obsessed with the concept of "fake music" (a thinly-veiled reference to "fake news"), being "orchestrally correct," the orchestra turning into a "swamp," how "wrong rhythms" are "coming in and stealing our sound" thanks to "Maracobama" (an audience member playing the maracas at the wrong time), and, of course, how the orchestra is going to "Make Music Great Again." While some references were funny at first, they lost their humour after being repeated dozens of times. What is truly strange is that Trumpson himself does not reflect either of his namesakes in his personality.

Luckily, Boorish Trumpson is not without laughs, as Parry's dramatic conducting technique is quite hilarious and will remind many of at least one over-the-top conductor they've encountered in the classical music world. Running, jumping, head banging; you name it, Trumpson will do it while conducting.

Parry also seems to have a background in music as she remains completely on rhythm throughout the show. As a percussionist, I was quite impressed that she knew what a vibraslap was and how to use it, as the instrument holds a special place in my heart (though I am a bit disappointed that she did not know the difference between a xylophone and a glockenspiel!). One of my favourite bits was a moment of improv in which there is supposed to be soft music playing but a train above The Vaults interrupted it, so Parry begins a dramatic stretching routine until the train goes by.

Ultimately, Boorish Trumpson is fun for the clowning aspects but fails to deliver on the political side. The show's ending is a bizarre mix of exaggerated conducting and forced audience participation that leaves you with an inkling of what the show is trying to say but fails to deliver. If this show was meant to give me the sense of frustration and confusion of the Boris and Trump era, it met its goal. I left Boorish Trumpson just as confused as I was by the time Trump and Boris themselves left office.

Boorish Trumpson ran at the VAULT Festival on 11 and 12 February in the Cage at The Vaults.

Photo Credit: VAULT Festival

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