The One True Dave

The Balcony

By Jean Genet

Year: 1958

Genre: Ontological absurdism

Cast: The Bishop, The Judge, The Executioner (Arthur), The General, The Chief of Police, The Beggar, Roger, The Court Envoy, The First Photographer, The Second Photographer, The Third Photographer, Irma (The Queen), The Woman (Rosine), The Thief, The Girl, Carmen, Chantal

Plot from Wikipedia: Most of the action takes place in an upmarket brothel in which its madam, Irma, “casts, directs, and co-ordinates performances in a house of infinite mirrors and theaters.”^[8] Genet uses this setting to explore roles of power in society; in the first few scenes patrons assume the roles of a bishop who forgives a penitent, a judge who punishes a thief, and a general who rides his horse. Meanwhile, a revolution is progressing outside in the city and the occupants of the brothel anxiously await the arrival of the Chief of Police. Chantal, one of the prostitutes, has quit the brothel to become the embodiment of the spirit of the revolution. An Envoy from the Queen arrives and reveals that the pillars of society (the Chief Justice, the Bishop, the General, etc.) have all been killed in the uprising. Using the costumes and props in Irma’s “house of illusions” (the traditional French name for a brothel), the patrons’ roles are realised when they pose in public as the figures of authority in a counter-revolutionary effort to restore order and the status quo.^[9]

Why this play is cool: Genet made a career out of writing plays featuring characters who were performing roles for each other.  The Balcony takes that to the extreme where the setting is a brothel that sells performances as much (if not more) than the promise of sexual satisfaction.  The main conceit of the play is that the high ranking officials that frequent the brothel are caught in a revolution outside the walls.  The Chief of Police, as part of his fantasy, wishes to have a heroic death played out.  The layered meta aspect of the play is that the revolution outside may also be staged as an elaborate performance (the boundaries of the brothel are blown open).  What is more, the audience is implicated in the performance through direct address by Irma (the mistress) including them by acknowledging their presence and dismissing them as she does her clients at the end of the play.

Jean Paul Sartre wrote a long mind-twisting book about Genet called Saint Genet where he explains at length how Genet and his writing reflect the contemporary existential condition.  Evil is needed to know good; darkness to know light.  Genet the criminal, homosexual, writer, modern citizen is circumscribed by society.  God needs Satan to legitimize the whole structure.  In this play, the people playing fantasies of being heads of state are called upon to perform the roles in place of the real leaders.  Layers of falsehood pass as real to keep a semblance of order.  The parallels to institutions of power and the sand those castles are built on is very poignant.