Scaramouche Jones

Born at midnight on December 31 1899, Scaramouch Jones was a strange, pale, white-skinned “oyster” who popped out of his Gypsy prostitute mother in a fishmongers in Trinidad. Orphaned, exiled and sold into slavery into a single day, apprenticed to a African snake-charmer, rescued by an Italian homosexual prince who transports him to Venice and a masked ball hosted by Mussolini then falling in with Gypsies heading to sell shoes in Poland, Scaramouche ends up in a concentration camp in Croatia where his white face saves him from death. He becomes the digger of mass graves, a clown who makes the children laugh as they stand on the edge of the pit waiting to be shot. Justin Butcher’s play reimagines Scaramouche Jones as a traveller of the world witnessing some of the great and terrible events of the 20th century. Now as the clocks tick towards midnight at “the very arse-end of the 20th century”, 100-year-old Scaramouche reflects on his life, peeling back the masks to tell of “50 years to make the clown, 50 years to play the clown”.

Originally a classic clown character of the 16th Century, Scaramouche appeared in Moliere comedies before becoming one of the classic characters in sea-side PUNCH AND JUDY puppet shows.

Streamed. On Demand Apr 5-11