JOY JOY JOY JOY JOY JOY JOY
Julia Masli’s show Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha has finally arrived at the SoHo Playhouse after a successful run last year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and it is a riot. Masli is an award-winning clown from Estonia, now based in London; when I went, the house was packed with young adults, already an unusual sight, and they laughed the entire time with enthusiasm, a lot of them gave up a sock, one was repeatedly asked to leave, and one even took a shower on stage. Masli’s animated face, naive and mischievous, full of subtlety and nuances, is magnetic, and she can make you do things in public you never thought possible.
She enters the semi-empty dark and smoky stage wearing an oddly shaped Victorian-looking dress, an even stranger hat with a headlight that illuminates her face (and the audience at her whim) and a golden mannequin leg over her left arm with a microphone taped at its end, all cleverly designed by Alice Wedge, Annika Thiems, and David Curtis-Ring. She points the mic at the audience and identifies individual problems. “Problem?” she asks. The plot develops out of circumstance, the way the audience is challenged and how each individual responds.
It’s a call to defy cynicism, to embrace problems as part of life. And, her solutions are hysterical; Masli is able to balance pathos and humor so well, inviting us to laugh, gasp, and let out sighs by using simple, kind gestures, and adorable wide-eyed expressions. She convinced us to massage the shoulders of the person sitting in front of us or hug the ones at our sides, all to reinforce the idea that despite suffering, joy can come along with the help of others.
Don’t get me wrong, at one point she resorted to violence and completely destroyed a wooden chair against the stage wall. The show is unpredictable, and she knows what she is doing; Masli trained and taught at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier, the school of the acclaimed French master clown, pedagogue, and professor of theatre. At times, the humanity in her performance reminded me of a modern Giulietta Masina, the great Italian actress mostly featured in Fellini’s films.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha is co-directed by Masli and Kim Noble; the lighting design by Lily Woodford and the soundtrack by Alessio Festuccia (with the help of sound tech Jonny Woolley) complement the show giving it the right ever-changing atmosphere. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience of collective joy by a very talented, irreverent artist; if you are terribly shy, don’t sit in the front seats. Either way, don’t miss it.
photos by Austin Ruffer
Julia Masli: Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
SoHo Playhouse
Mon-Thurs at 9; Fri and Sat at 10
ends on June 8, 2024
for tickets ($56.50 – $106.50 including fees), visit Ovation Tix
