Shay Mace
Ready for your appointment with this clown? Andrea Barello bursts onto stage wearing a stethoscope and carrying a tape measure – ready to size up his audience, with whom he seeks to engage in an hour of joyful, heart-warming play. Our nameless clown longs for only one thing, to be loved, and asks us to open up our hearts and minds to take part in his unusual quest to find himself, at the close of our time together, simply not a person left on stage alone. Through antics and hijinks, Barello conducts the room with levity and charm, in a curious show that provides respite and plenty of laughs.
In the first instance, we are bound together as an audience by a seemingly endless tape measure that Barello weaves in between us, and later all involved in the audience participation find themselves navigating the maze of obstacles it presents. Barello is interested in intentionally causing as much mischief as possible, even in the title of this show, which has elicited many questions across the social scene of Thessaloniki Fringe – ie. “When are you seeing Tonight?!”, “I’m seeing Tonight! tomorrow”. This holistic approach gloriously sets up the interactivity of the piece, in which Barello takes various members of the audience up on stage for boxing matches, date nights, and pizza dances (not spoiling anything about that last one).
Our clown, however, is not interested in playing conductor to the room, but instead crafting a space that audiences can take to the stage and truly engage with his ethos of play. Our participants are not often guided, sometimes to Barello’s disadvantage, and this marks the show’s contribution to clowning pedagogy, in which the audience members themselves to must take part in the artform to progress the show succinctly along. Some do not comply, which makes for a few awkward moments where the balance of power tips away from Barello and his near non-verbal vow is temporarily broken to nudge the story in the right direction, to the next point of interaction.
Loneliness is at the core of the piece’s themes, and how even without exchanging words with one another we can build bridges of all kinds to make each other feel seen, heard, and soulfully nourished. It’s an absurd journey to get there – with sequences seeing our clown train for a boxing match, or measure the earlobes of audience members, not there to push the story along, but to play with the audience’s expectations, push their boundaries a little further, and in the end, make sure that our clown fulfils his aim of being left on stage with someone who can offer him that feeling of being loved.
Joyful, gentle, impish clowning that invites the whole audience to take part, be seen, and muck about.
Recommended Drink: Pair this with a fizzy, punchy Aperol Spritz, from our titular clown’s home country.
Performances of Tonight! a clown who wanted to be loved? have now concluded at Thessaloniki Fringe 2026.
Image Credit: Amy Brown Carter
