clowns “One thing about Usallicans: they love to toot their own horns.”

In case you didn’t know right off that Denis McCourt’s “The Conjugated Beliefs of Usallica” is poking fun at you and your society—in the USA, U and I can all be a little Usallican—the literally clownish cast parades onstage to “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” recites a Pledge of Allegiance overtly modeled on our own national(istic) loyalty oath, and so forth. The pomp and circumstance here could not be any clearer: absurdist as this clown-show-with-wordplay may be, “Usallica” is a clear satire of much of the tradition and belief that binds us—the point being that some of that binding is too tight and all too often insufficiently parsed (or we might say: conjugated).

McCourt’s script seems less than exceptionally clever in Act I—though forgivably so, because to a large extent this really is just a wordy clown show—and as such it comes off without a hitch (and indeed with some inspired moments).

But in Act II, when we are treated to a liturgical send-up of the free mixing of would-be spirituality and pop culture, McCourt takes things to another level. It’s more incisive than Act I—and even more fun. “We believe these truths to be self-evident,” the cast (good from top to bottom) intones in reference to a litany of beliefs that may be noble on occasion but are anything but self-evident, then scores the point with a seamless transition to “When You Wish Upon a Star.” To appropriate a favourite line from The Simpsons (and appropriation, ladies and gentlemen, is appropriate for the topic under discussion): It’s funny because it’s true.

Usallica is little more than an hour, plus the intermission. This is probably the perfect length for a clown show; yet, because of the higher gear of Act II, you’re probably going to be a bit disappointed when things come to a gliding halt. Prematurely? Well, a post-performance exegesis of the set by its designer (Dan Wheeler) makes me think McCourt could get 10 extra minutes just by playing off some of the easily-overlooked symbolic details therein.

Then again, there is that saying (here at least, if not Usallica, too): Leave ‘em wanting more. The mirroring finale is half-obvious and half-nebulous—and for all that, ’nuff said. We see ourselves, and that’s enough to take home with us.

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