Batavia native brings Brecht to the stage in a whole new way

Those who argue that the suburbs breed conformity should meet Paul Kalina.

Kalina, founding member of the brilliant and insane physical comedy troupe 500 Clown, proves this old cliché wrong. He was born and raised in Batavia. In fact, he calls himself a "third generation Batavian."

Yet, 500 Clown is way, way out there.

The troupe's first show, "500 Clown Macbeth," was a totally crazed adaptation of the classic Shakespeare tragedy, staged with only three performers. The production was full of incredibly dangerous physical bits, including a series of death-defying climbs up a staging platform. Yet it remained true to the spirit, if not the letter, of the Bard's words.

The second show was an even more off-the-wall adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."

Now Kalina and company have set about giving German playwright Bertolt Brecht the 500 Clown treatment at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Or rather "500 Clown and the Elephant Deal" started out, according to Kalina, as an adaptation of Brecht's play, "Man is Man," about the transformation of a civilian into a soldier.

"But then we discovered that Brecht already uses so many clown techniques in his plays that we felt like we were always doing Brecht," Kalina explains, adding that their first version "just wasn't interesting us."

And if there is something Kalina cannot abide, it is not being interested. That is why he left regular theater to begin with. After doing a lot of theater in high school and in college at Illinois State University, Kalina says he "was having issues with regular theater." This despite the fact that many of his college professors were the same ones who taught the Steppenwolf folks a few years earlier.

"They were an amazing group of teachers," Kalina says. But that facet of theater was not for him. "I was kinda bored," he says.

One production of a classic of English theater, "Fair Maid of the West," caught Kalina's eye. That was because it contained lots of what is called physical theater: powerful, dance-like movements and comedy routines built around cartoonish action.

Kalina found out about a theater in California, Dell'Arte, that focused on teaching the roots of slapstick and physical theater - traditional commedia and mask work.

"I fell in love with that kind of theater," Kalina says. He studied at Dell'Arte for a while and then spent three years on the street performing, doing comedy for passers-by.

Eventually Kalina came back home, bringing his brand of slapstick to local productions, most notably a stint with the Evanston-based Actor's Gymnasium's small circus company.

"I kept hearing about (500 Clown co-founder) Adrian Danzig," Kalina says, "And he kept hearing about me. Eventually I met him. And then I kept running into him. And often we would start talking about the kind of theater we would like to make."

One day Danzig called Kalina and asked him about doing a show called "500 Clown Macbeth."

"We had no plan to create a company," Kalina says. "It was just an experiment. We wanted to see what happens when you play a game too hard. "

In this case the game was an adult version of king of the hill. And the result was an amazingly successful - and popular - show. And from that success sprang a new theater company.

And that leads us back to the current show: "500 Clown and the Elephant Deal," which previews this weekend and opens Wednesday, June 24.

"We haven't completely thrown away Brecht," Kalina says. "We kind of pick and choose from the script. There is an old clown routine in the show where they sell an elephant. We use that, but we added music. Basically we are creating a new Brecht musical."

If the past is any indication, this new musical will be utterly unlike any other musical out there.

"500 Clown and the Elephant Deal"

Location: Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago

Showtimes: Previews 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 20 and 21. Show opens 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25, and runs Wednesdays through Saturdays (except July 4) through July 11.

Tickets: $20 previews; $20-$28 for regular run

Box office: (312) 335-1650, or steppenwolf.org/boxoffice.