22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY OCTOBER 16-22, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com took a life on its own and Miller soon equipped it with his own clown drawings. There was something about the idea of the clown that clearly attracted him deeply; when reading the story it’s hard not to take some of the sentences as Miller’s own confessions, perhaps even more authentic than those he so keenly offers to us in his first-person autobiographical works, such as Tropic of Cancer, The Rosy Crucifixion, etc. “Nothing could diminish the lustre of that extraordinary smile which was engraved on Auguste’s sad countenance,” we read about the hero of the story, the clown in crisis. He “wanted to endow his spectators with a joy that would prove imperishable…Each night the laughter became more jarring to his ears. Finally it became unbearable.” These words make readers think about what’s behind an artist’s presentation to the world. How does it feel to be “the king of smut,” to be a jester, who tells his critic over and over again that he doesn’t care what they think? To quote from The Smile again: “The real Auguste no one knew, not even his friends, for with fame he had become a solitary. “Very friendly and social. Usually reserved unless he has the floor. Then, he speaks enthusiastically, with a marvelous sense of humor, accentuating his remarks with gestures and grimaces. Often he claims, ‘I should have been a clown.’” These words were put down to paper by June Lancaster, Miller’s brief but observant romantic interest who lived with him in the summer of 1944. Now, it’s been adapted for the stage by Kangalee of Kangalee Arts Ensemble, co-written and directed by Magus Magnus, and produced by Justine Stock of J. Stock Productions and the Henry Miller Memorial Library. It premiered on Oct. 15 and performances are scheduled at various local venues through Sunday, Oct. 19. Kangalee and Magnus are not the first people moved by The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder as a parable of an artistic life. Miller published and sold rights for the film years before Tropic of Cancer was published in the U.S. in 1961, Italian-Norwegian composer Antonio Bibalo made his breakthrough thanks to The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder opera, and in 1973 the famous French mime Marcel Marceau desperately inquired about the rights for the movie based on the story, thinking of Auguste’s story as his own. “It’s been very spiritual,” Kangalee said, describing his experience with Miller’s text in a conversation with Torén (on A Big Sur Podcast in 2023). “It’s very strange; I’m not religious at all.” The exact same words could be said by Henry Miller himself, who was not religious either but felt religiously about his quest of self-liberation he was determined to share with his readers. This sense of metaphysical, almost mystical mission is present whenever he defends the liberties he takes in his writing, obscenities being at the top of the list. Not unlike Miller, Kangalee—who is based in New York but has performed locally at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in January 2025 in Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett—gave up the mainstream for more ambitious art. He started his own company, the Kangalee Arts Ensemble, and risks—like Miller, like all ambitious artists—artistic obscurity. Kangalee says reading The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder changed his life because he had read it in times when he considered giving up acting. “There are people I know that are huge, huge movie stars, but they have absolutely DANIEL DREIFUSS COURTESY HENRY MILLER MEMORIAL LIBRARY COURTESY HENRY MILLER MEMORIAL LIBRARY Henry Miller was not only a writer, but also a painter who worked in watercolor. Some of his works can be found at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur (above). The photo of Miller painting (below left) was taken by Gail Mezey at Miller’s home in Pacific Palisades, where he spent the last two decades of his life. Below right: An untitled work of Miller’s.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==