Bouffon & Grotesque Theatre Workshop

2-day Bouffon & Grotesque Theatre workshop

led by Martin Gill & Robyn Hambrook

Overview
This two-day immersive workshop invites participants into the wild, provocative world of Bouffons and Grotesque Theatre. Rooted in ancient Greek traditions and descended from the satyrs—minor gods of ecstasy and fertility—the Bouffons embody an extreme state of play: a mime gone feral, a shape-shifting chorus of creatures who mirror, mock, and magnify the games of human society.
Through movement technique and improvisation, participants will explore how Bouffons amplify reality until it becomes grotesque, provoking laughter, outrage, and reflection. The band of Bouffons is not simply comic—it is a mirror held up to the community, exposing ethical dilemmas and inviting collective reimagining.

Day One: Entering the Bouffon State

Discover the Bouffon “state”: mocking eyes, altered play, and ecstatic transformation
Explore flocking and collective movement: the shape-shifting chorus as a living organism
Work with the grotesque body: amplification, deformation, swelling, puffing
Experiment with wild bodies and ritualised play
Develop rhythm, ritual, and mocking dynamics in bands of Bouffons

Day Two: Improvisation & Social Reflection

Deepen into the shape-shifting body and its poetic potential
Practice Bouffon improvisation: non-linear, non-local writing and collective invention
Explore how Bouffons see the world: themes of play, parody, and provocation
Mock the great themes of humanity: politics, power, love, death, and community ethics
Create ensemble pieces that provoke laughter, outrage, and shared reflection

Who is this for?
This workshop is for performers, directors, and facilitators who want to expand their physical vocabulary, explore collective improvisation, and engage with theatre as a tool for social reflection.

How it works

2-day Bouffon & Grotesque Theatre Workshop
Saturday 31 January and Sunday 1 February
10am - 5pm

Venue:
The Angel Space, South Street, Totnes, TQ9 5DZ

Investment:
2 day workshop (12 hours training)
£180 - Full price
£160 - Concession (low/no income, student)
EARLYBIRD £140 to first 5 places

Prerequisites:
None. All levels welcome

Book Your Place

Why Bouffons?
Bouffon play is not mysterious—it is a precise, embodied technique that opens a unique theatrical territory. By amplifying society’s games to grotesque proportions, Bouffons invite audiences to confront contradictions, hypocrisies, and ethical dilemmas. The result is a theatre that is both hilarious and unsettling, playful and politically charged.

★ "A truly liberating workshop. Right from the beginning I experienced a freedom to explore. Robyn and Martin were seriously playful, engaging and permissive. It was amazing where we got in one day. I really enjoyed interacting with the other participants in such an unfamiliar way and found it inspiring watching other’s explorations. Good times."
Previous Participant - one day Bouffon workshop with Robyn & Martin

Your facilitators

Martin Gill is a Psychodramatist and dramatherapist with a background in agit prop and community theatre. (Contact Community Theatre Manchester. Street Level. North Wales. Action Theatre. Ruth Zapora). He trained in Bouffon and Commedia Dell'arte with the legendary Francis Battern and recently with Eric Davis.

Robyn Hambrook is a Bristol-based director, teacher, and performer with over 20 years’ experience in clowning, physical theatre, and circus. In 2023, she founded the Bristol Clown School, following her earlier launch of The Online Clown Academy during the pandemic. Driven to explore the intersection of clowning and activism, she creates bold research spaces like the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy and the Clown Congress. Keen to explore the political edges of her work, Robyn has most recently been diving back into the territory of Bouffon, training with Jaime Mears, Bim Mason, Eric Davis and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier.
www.robynhambrook.com and www.bristolclownschool.co.uk

Join our Totnes bouffon WhatsApp group:https://chat.whatsapp.com/LBWTtsXwXOt6yPJ3BPIge0

ABOUT ROBYN

Robyn is a Bristol-based director, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Bim Mason, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Lucy Hopkins and John Wright.
Over the past eight years she has been exploring the meeting point of clowning, activism and a deep desire to address the injustices in the world. This specialism has developed through her Masters Research ‘Small Circus Acts of Resistance’, on the streets and in protests with the Bristol Rebel Clowns and in research residencies with The Trickster Laboratory.
Robyn’s Activist Clown research has led to collaborations with Jay Jordan (Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, France), Clown Me In (Beirut), LM Bogad (US), Hilary Ramsden (Greece) and international Tricksters; ‘The Yes Men’ (US).
During the pandemic in 2020, Robyn set up The Online Clown Academy with Holly Stoppit and developed a series of Zoom Clown Courses. Robyn’s research, started during her Masters, has been exploring the meeting point of clowning and activism, online, in the real world and with international collaborators. With this drive to explore political edges of her work she has also dived back into the world of the Bouffon; training with Jaime Mears, Bim Mason, Nathaniel Justiniano, Eric Davis, Tim Licata, Al Seed and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier.
Keen to explore the intersection of clowning and politics, Robyn is driven to create collaborative, research spaces, testing and pushing the limits of the artform to create new knowledge and methodologies for her industry and strengthen partnerships for future work. Some of her most recent collaborations and teaching projects have included the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy (5-day Activist Clown Training), The Laboratory of the Un-beautiful (Feminist Grotesque Bouffon Training for Womxn Theatre Makers) and the Clown Congress (annual gathering of clowns, activists & academics collectively exploring what it means to be a clown in this current era)

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Photo by HeardinLondon Photography