His Snowshow is rated as a classic of the 20th century. When asked how difficult it is to carry on one's shoulders the burden of world-wide fame, Slava usually answers that the difficult part is not so much to carry it, as to keep it there.

The Clown of Slava Polunin is remarkably serious. This certainly explains that he does nothing haphazardly. Everything he does is thorough, carefully thought through and weighed, no matter how improbable, inconceivable and silly it may be. When focused on his goal, Slava is precise, accurate and unshakeable.

His Clown: it was Assissiaï, the funny and touching little man in yellow overalls and fiuffy red slippers. It was the birth of a pensive, tender, poetic character, who had inherited the sad lyricism of Engibarov's clownery, the philosophical refinement of Marceau's pantomime, the humane and poignant comedy of the great Chaplin. All of them Polunin considers to be his teachers.

Assissiaï first appeared with his two brightly coloured infiatable telephones before an audience of several million spectators during the New Year's Eve television show «The Small Flame», on 31 December 1980. This is when we saw for the first time his dialogue of love and loneliness, of the yearning to be understood, of the happiness of finding and the sadness of losing. This conversation lives on to this day, as Polunin's hero continues both as a monologue – and between the Clown and his public around the globe.

Conversation partners: Yvette Bozsik and András Kozma

Magyar és angol szinkrontolmácsolással / With simultaneous Hungarian and English translation

Előzetes regisztráció: szervezes@nemzetiszinhaz.hu

(04 March 2019)