VILE to Perform at NYC Clown Festival Sept. 4, 2026

Francesca Montanile Lyons will perform her solo clown/bouffon show VILE for one night only during the first annual NYC Clown Festival at Brooklyn Art Haus on September 4, 2026 at 7pm. Tickets and more information are available via Eventbrite.

This will be the show's first performance in NYC after a successful national tour. VILE has won a Staff Choice Award in the MN Fringe Festival, an Encore Performance from Philadelphia's Cannonball Festival, and was nominated for a Flamboyance Award.

Are you sad? Me too, bestie. Welcome to VILE, an award-winning clown show that rides the line between pleasure and disgust, where clown and buffon hold a funhouse mirror to the experience of muddling through depression while drowning in modernity. Here, the laughter is tinged with nausea, and the nausea is tinged with relief. Ingredients include: greasy toes, a balloon penis, extra cheese, and a side of bdsm.

Part of a growing and vibrant clown scene in Philadelphia, Francesca's work is rooted in techniques learned during her Lecoq training at the Pig Iron School for Devised Performance and influenced by the time she has spent in the Philly drag and burlesque performance scenes. Her work overall seeks to disempower shame and taboo through playful honesty and voyeuristic delight, and VILE is a show that exemplifies these values and goals.

As one audience member shared, 'VILE is at times vile...in a brilliant way. But it is all the opposite things too, it is caring and thoughtful and creative and funny! It makes me feel that feeling like theater is my church. A place where I feel seen. Highly recommended.' In the press, VILE has been hailed as 'a fantastic piece of performance art and a real gem of the fringe,' (Twin Cities Geek) and 'the sort of fringe theater experiment that has people talking long after.' (Twin Cities Arts Reader).

Created by Francesca Montanile Lyons, with outside-eye support from Alicia Crosby and sound design by Tom Carman. Illustrations and animations created by Francesca Montanile Lyons.

Tickets to VILE are currently on sale and can be found on Eventbrite. General admission is $23.25. More information about the artist can be found at francescamontanilelyons.com and on Instagram @francescamontanilelyons.

Please note that this production is for 18+ audiences and includes references to assault, depression, and kink.

Event Details

New York City Clown Festival presents VILE

September 4, 2026

7:00pm

Brooklyn Art Haus (24 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11211)

$23.25

Tickets available at Eventbrite

Artist Biographies

Francesca Montanile Lyons is a Philly-based artist and educator who focuses on the creation of new work as a director, dramaturg, and performer/clown. Her art-making seeks to disempower shame and taboo through playful honesty & voyeuristic delight. Credits include VILE (PHL, PVD, MN, Indy Fringes), Van Gogh Shogh (national tours, Edinburgh), Dear Diary LOL (FringeArts, New Ohio), Good Grief (PHL Fringe, LeMondo), Legal Tender (FringeArts, AntFest), Fourth Quarter (FPA Fest), and Girl Poop (Various Venues). Her work has received support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYTW, FringeArts, Painted Bride, Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Bartol Foundation, Bethany Arts Community, Network of Ensemble Theaters, & Puffin Foundation, among others. MFA in Devised Performance from UArts/Pig Iron (2016). BA in Theatre Arts & Performance Studies from Brown U (2011). ig: @francescamontanilelyons. www.francescamontanilelyons.com

Alicia Crosby is an actor, artist-maker, and designer. By moonlight, Alicia performs as Queen Conch, a comedic and out-of-this-world burlesque performer and winner of Season 8 of Philadelphia's Burlesque Battle Royale. Alicia co-created and performed in Dear Diary LOL (The New Ohio Theater, Ice Factory Festival 2018, FringeArts 2018, Philadelphia Fringe 2017) and Nellie/Nellie (Philadelphia Fringe 2015) with Antigravity Theatre Project, among other works of devised theater. Alicia has also designed props for Philadelphia Theatre Company, New Paradise Laboratories, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Pig Iron Theatre Company, and Nichole Canuso Dance Company. She is a graduate of Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training.

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