First produced at the Moscow Art Theatre in October, 1915
Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring CLOWNS! We are starting off by reviewing a play about clowns and circus performers: He Who Gets Slapped by Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev.
SUMMARY
A gentleman decides to join the circus for unknown reasons. Wishing to keep his famous identity anonymous, he gives himself the name “He” and convinces the circus troupe to let him be a clown who gets slapped. During this time, Consuelo, a bareback horse rider, is being courted by the Baron, who she does not love. Her adoptive father, Count Mancini, allows Consuelo to marry the Baron, but does not really want her to be with him. Alfred, Consuelo’s trainer, has feelings for Consuelo, but not enough to stop her marriage to the Baron despite He telling him to either kill Consuelo or kill the Baron to save her. He decides to take actions in his own hands and poisons Consuelo and himself. They both die and the Baron shoots himself.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS PLAY
- The play features Chekhov’s lions and tigers. It is mentioned repeatedly that Zinida’s big cats are dangerous but no one is killed by the cats in the play.
- The play depicts the life of circus performers and what it is like being backstage. In smaller roles there are several random clowns, acrobats, ballet girls, sword dancers, snake charmers, contortionists, jugglers, and other performers who constantly interrupt the interactions of the main characters.
- This play offers a nice exercise for text analysis. There are many parts of the characters/play that are left unexplained and the reader/performer will need to draw their own conclusions on those details based on the clues given by the playwright. For example, it is unclear if “Count” Mancini is really a count who’s down on his luck or a con artist. Also, He’s identity is never revealed to the audience. We just know He was famous in his pre-circus life.
MEMORABLE LINES
BRIQUET: You are stupid, Mancini. What do you do it for? [In a didactic tone] You are fearfully stupid, Mancini. Why does she need to learn? Since she is here she need never know anything about that life. Don’t you understand? What is geography? If I were the government I would forbid artists to read books. Let them read the posters, that’s enough.
* * *
JACKSON: Whiskey and soda! Believe me, ladies and gents, He will surely make a career. I am an old clown, and I know the crowd. Why to-day, he even eclipsed me—and clouds have covered my Sun. [Striking it.] They do not like puzzles, they want slaps! They are longing for them and dreaming about them in their homes. Your health, He! Another whiskey and soda! He got so many slaps to-day, there would be enough to go round the whole orchestra!
* * *
GENTLEMAN: I really don’t know…. Everything here strikes me so…. These posters, horses, animals, which I passed when I was looking for you…. And finally, you, a clown in a circus! [With a slight, deprecating smile.] Could I expect it? It is true, when everybody there decided that you were dead, I was the only man who did not agree with them. I felt that you were still alive. But to find you among such surroundings—I can’t understand it.
HE: You said you have a son, now. Doesn’t he look like me?
* * *
BRIQUET: [Shrugs his shoulders; to Jackson] He wants to be a clown! Look him over, Jim.
[Jackson makes a motion at which the gentleman hurriedly removes his coat and throws it on a chair. He is ready for the examination. Jackson turns him round, looking him over critically.]
JACKSON: Clown? Hm! Turn round then. Clown? Yes? Now smile. Wider—broader—do you call that a smile? So—that’s better. There is something, yes—but for full developments—— [Sadly]: Probably you can’t even turn a somersault?
HE: [Sighs]: No.
HISTORICAL NOTES
- The first production of He Who Gets Slapped in New York was at the New Yiddish Theatre in 1919.
- The play was translated into English and produced on Broadway by the Theatre Guild in January, 1922. The production featured Henry Travers (Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life) as one of the clowns.
- He Who Gets Slapped was adapted into a film in 1924 by Victor Sjöström. It starred Lon Cheney, John Gilbert, and Norma Shearer and was the first MGM movie to feature a roaring lion at the start of the film. The film substantially changes the plot, retaining the characters’ names, the fact that they all work in a circus, and He’s act (he’s still a clown who gets slapped).
- In 1971 He Who Gets Slapped was adapted into a musical starring Bernadette Peters that ran for 5 performances
- Leonid Andreyev was also a novelist and short story writer.
- He was a friend of Maxim Gorky.
Read the play, translated into English by Gregory Zilboorg, HERE
Photo Credit: Photo-Graphe, “Horse Show,” 2016