(Julia Masli, Photo by Andy Hollingworth)

by Tim Leininger

NEW HAVEN — For most of us, finding joy in our moments of pain can be very hard. For some it can be near impossible. Feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, pain from abuse and derision can create a pit of despair that we sink deeper and deeper into. But there are people out there who have developed the skills to help pull us up from our morass. Julia Masli is one of those individuals as she has brought her one-of-a-kind show, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha to Yale Repertory Theatre, directed by Kim Noble, running through Feb. 7.

            A Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Touring Production, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, is presented and advertised as a “clown show,” and I suppose it is. Not in any traditional sense. Masli, who created and performs the show, doesn’t wear any white grease paint and doesn’t dress in any of the conventional clown attire, which is fine considering 43 to 53% of people have some form of coulrophobia (depending on the survey you read).

            Though not dressed like Pennywise or Bozo, Masli does embody a style of clown performance. She’s not the “Tramp/Hobo,” nor is she the classic “Whiteface” clown. Instead, her performance is closer to a Contra-Auguste clown. The one that plays a mediator role in traditional clown performance.

Being the only official clown on stage she creates a world around her that becomes participatory for the audience. Wearing a blue dress with a helmet type of contraption with a light on her head, and a mannequin leg on her arm with a microphone taped to it, she approaches different audience members, initially getting them to imitate various monosyllabic sounds with her, starting with “ha ha ha” with her saying the first two and then the audience member expected to repeat the final “ha.” This becomes more complex until one audience member fails. This evolves into her then approaching different audience members and asking them what problems they have. It’s excellently executed as Masli’s character is so endearing, it is easy for us, the audience, to become comfortable with her and open up to her. Some people in the audience suggested after the show that there may be one or two plants to get everyone else comfortable. I would not be surprised if that is true, but, to counterpoint, I think she is likable, and her ability to read the audience for who may be receptive to her is so perfectly attuned, that she it was all improvised.

The set, presumably designed by her (there is no scenic design credit in the program), has an array of potential props that she may or may not use depending on how the audience responds to her. For example, there is a table downstage right with a variety of little items, and the night I was in attendance, she only went over to it once. She did make sure to use some larger set pieces — which I won’t spoil — that she has preset, and depending on how the audience members respond, she gets them engaged with each of them.

What matters, though, is why and how she responds with the audience. When she asks “Problem?” and the audience member responds, she listens intently and expresses curiosity and empathy toward the person. Lily Woodford. Jennifer Fok, and Sarah Chapin’s lighting design help create an extremely intimate environment between her and whom she is talking to, bringing us into the communication between the two. By the time she gets to someone who — like in the case of the night I was in attendance — has high cholesterol and he tells her he needs to eat healthier, she gets an audience member to voluntarily give her fruit in her bag to the man. When a guy says he is cold, she convinces audience members to donate their scarfs, toques, and mittens to him. Those people may have gotten them back at the end of show, but there were definitely people leaving the theater with only one sock left on their feet.

Masli is so sweet as she beckons the audience to help each other, that for an hour, the theater becomes a haven of joy and giving, done in a way that is full of lighthearted humor as her innocent persona curiously wonders about who we are and how we can help each other.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha is not your traditional clown show. It is something more. While still being funny, it evokes a deeper connection with your fellow human, looking at them with a more loving and caring disposition. It is a singular experience that should bring laughter and tears to everyone.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

TICKETS: https://yalerep.org/

PRODUCTION

Created and Performed by Julia Masli; Directed by Kim Noble; Sound Designer and Composer: Alessio Festuccia; Live Sound Designer: Sebastián Hernández; Co-Lighting Designer: Jennifer Fok; Original Lighting Designer: Lily Woodford; Associate Producer, Production Manager, Stage Manager, Live Lighting Designer: Sarah Chapin; Costume Designers: David Curtis-Ring, Annika Thiems, Alice Wedge; Technical Director: Mara Bredovskis; Consulting Producers: Maria Manuela Goyanes, David C. Frederick, Sophia Lynn; Assistant Stage Managers: Whitney Renell Roy, Clair Young