On a bare stage under bright light a troupe of hapless clowns do their unlevel best to get along and pass the time. An old music plays on loop - the wrong kind, but no one seems to mind. Rehearsing old gags, getting tangled in new ones, forgetting that anything happened and then remembering and forgetting again. They fight and chase in eruptions of uneasy mayhem, then cool off a little, settle and wait for the whole thing to kick off again. Carefully unbalanced between funny and not funny Forced Entertainment’s Out Of Order is the ruins of a show in the ruins of a world. Violence and posturing, high jinx and clown on clown comical capers give way to bickering, exhaustion, hunger, melancholy and silence. The clock ticks. The music swells to repeated climax. And everything comes to nothing.

Conceived and devised by: the company Director: Tim Etchells Devised and performed by: Robin Arthur, Nicki Hobday, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor Created with input from: Claire Marshall, Hester Chillingworth Lighting Design: Nigel Edwards, Design: Richard Lowdon Production Management: Jim Harrison Production: Forced Entertainment Co-production: Künstlerhaus Mousonturm supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media of Germany and Schauspiel Frankfurt, PACT Zollverein (Essen), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Gessnerallee Zurich

Forced Entertainment Creative Team Tim Etchells (Artistic Director), Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon (Designer), Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor Forced Entertainment Management Team: Eileen Evans (Executive Director), Hester Chillingworth (Creative Producer: Participation & Engagement), Jim Harrison (Production Manager), Natalie Simpson (Office Manager), Julia White (Marketing and Communications Manager) 

Forced Entertainment is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.