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Volume CXXXIII, Number 10 |
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Mon dieu! Théâtre de l'absurd
HANNAH TUCKER AND ELAINE JOHANSON
STAFF WRITERS
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| The characters played by Ana Conboy '04 and Peter Khoury '03 are married but don't remember ever meeting in the French absurdist comedy The Bald Soprano, presented in the original language. (Nancy Van Dyke, Bowdoin Orient) |
The pink elephant drives by at 7:00 p.m. In tandem with this event, the student production of La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano) will provide something the Bowdoin community so often lacks during the packed finals season: one unapologetic hour of absurdity.
While abroad in Paris, Natalie Handel '04 was inspired by a production of La Cantatrice Chauve, which sparked her interest in directing it as an independent study at Bowdoin. Eugene Ionesco, the playwright, was inspired by the absurdity of the exercises in the language textbooks he bought to learn English. For the set design, Handel has recreated the feeling of these textbook illustrations, but in her direction she has deviated from the production she saw in Paris.
"When I saw it, I thought that there were things the actors did in a very stylized way," said Handel. "All six characters were like cartoons. They didn't seem to have any connection to any sort of real life struggle, and I wanted to emphasize that more in this production. The way I worked with the actors emphasized grounding the action in real life circumstances."
This emphasis is evident in this production, since the audience can relate to the emotions and struggles of the characters while still enjoying the illogicality of their predicaments.
The play brings together people who have not only had varying degrees of acting experience, but who have learned the French language through an assortment of means. However, any disparity in French-speaking ability is undetectable, perhaps because all the rehearsals have been conducted in French, in addition to the French text the actors had to memorize.
The play opens on Mr. and Mrs. Smith, played by Genevieve Creedon '05 and Ashby Crowder '04, who are enjoying after-dinner conversation and the evening paper. Their maid, played by Katinka Podmaniczky '06, is the only omniscient character, existing in a far more reasonable world than the rest.
Ana Conboy '04 and Peter Khoury '04 play Mr. and Mrs. Martin, a married couple who have no recollection of ever having met before. Teaching fellow Guillaume Meyer plays a fire chief distressed by his inability to locate a sufficiently perilous fire.
The play culminates in an absurd marriage of rhyme and lack of reason, yet ultimately comes full circle. Because the words and actions of the characters continually thwart the audience's expectations, the plot is purposely difficult to find, but is less important than the individual interactions between the characters.
Though absurdist plays are sometimes thought of as being bizarre without being enjoyable, this particular play has moments of both immense hilarity and clarity. For example, the process of the fireman's entrance initiates a battle of logic delineated along gender lines, the resolution of which resonates beyond the scope of the play itself. Also, as Crowder noted, "way that people interact in the play is more like actual human interaction than is first evident."
Although subtitled in English, the play was written to show the disparity between words and meaning, and the play can be enjoyed without the translation. It is also important simply to listen to the rhyming French to enjoy the movement of the characters, who move easily throughout the well-utilized space of Wish Theater. All, including Handel, seem to have what she calls "a wicked awesome time doing it," as well.
A play that is amusingly absurd and absurdly amusing, La Cantatrice Chauve feels no need to affirm any traditional expectations of what theater ought to be, and this ingenuity is precisely what is so delicious about it.
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