Farce

A farce is a type of comedic presentation, whether a play, a skit, or simply a vignette, that uses exaggeration and the introduction of absurd elements as sources of amusement for the audience. Farces are often elaborately complex in their plot structure—so much so that audiences are tacitly encouraged to not pay too much attention to the plot, and instead consider the plot itself as part of the entire absurd package. The purpose of the farce is to make the audience laugh, not to make them think. To this end, a farce will often make use of outrageous physical comedy such as pies being flung into characters’ faces, wild pratfalls caused by unnoticed banana peels, and unexpected confusions of identity. It is not unusual for farces to have a setting that is confined to a single location, because this removes the unnecessary complications that would be introduced by multiple changes of scene.

Brief History

Audiences have been entertained by farces for thousands of years. There are numerous examples of the form being popular in Ancient Greece, including Dyskolos by Menander and Alularia by Plautus. By far the most famous Greek playwright to draw upon farce, however, was Aristophanes, although some consider the social commentary also present in his works to be a distraction from the true form of the farce. Playwrights who came after Aristophanes were less adept at blending insight with absurdity, and as a result they tended to focus their efforts on the more attention-grabbing techniques of farce, such as slapstick comedy, bawdy references to adultery, and convoluted cases of mistaken identity, all of which are now assumed to be the heart of the farce as a literary form.

In the Middle Ages, this form of comedy was first termed "farce." The word came from a French term meaning "to stuff," because many of the early comic scenes that relied upon farce for their humor were extremely brief and wound up being "stuffed" between other performances. The form gradually began to mature, and longer and longer works made use of farce. With the coming of the Renaissance, writers as illustrious as Shakespeare himself took on the medium; Shakespeare wrote his Comedy of Errors as a modernized take on the play Brothers Manaechmi, by Plautus. From the time of Shakespeare to the modern day, farce continued to evolve, with a variety of more specific subtypes gradually emerging. One such type is the bedroom farce, which relies heavily upon themes of adultery and sexual promiscuity; this is occasionally termed a "door farce" because there are often scenes where various characters enter and leave rooms through different doors almost simultaneously, barely missing one another.

Overview

Farce combines several different types of comedy, which may account for its popularity and effectiveness. These include physical comedy, verbal comedy in the form of jokes, and comedic plot structure, which manifests as absurd settings, unlikely coincidences, and bizarre plot twists. By combining all of these elements together, the playwright or screenwriter is able to develop truly unbelievable juxtapositions that delight audiences with their sheer improbability. For example, an author might craft a farce in which a tall, gangly character discovers that he has a twin brother who is wanted for murder, while at the same time the newly discovered twin arrives in town for his wedding to a woman who also has a twin sister, who is planning to elope with the main character. A telltale characteristic of a farce is that even describing its plot becomes overly complicated, as it does here. Watching that plot unfold on stage escalates the confusion to a truly indescribable degree.

The broad and long-enduring popularity of farce as a form of entertainment may be attributable to its frequent use as a form of social commentary. Throughout the ages, farce has been used not only to make light of types of suffering that are part of the human condition, such as the struggles of married couples, the challenges of family members struggling to tolerate one another, and the constant push and pull between optimism and pessimism, but also as a way to safely criticize political and social developments. People the world over must contend with political corruption, poverty, violence, and other social ills, and one means of coping with these burdens is to use humor to soften their impact. The portrayal of issues such as these through the lens of farce serves to remind the audience that their struggles, while painful, are universal—that is, they are shared by others. Being reminded of this can help audience members to feel less isolated and victimized by the difficulties they encounter in their own lives. In addition, farce by its very nature concentrates on the humorous and ridiculous aspects of an otherwise painful situation. For example, infidelity in a marriage is something that causes a great deal of anguish to couples and entire families, but it is commonly used in farce and has the effect of reminding the audience how much difference there can be between what a person expects out of life (a loving, supportive relationship) and what actually comes to pass (secrets, misdirection, and outright deception). In this way, farce does its own part to serve the dramatic function of catharsis, that is, the purging of negative emotions through fictional portrayal of those emotions and the provision of opportunities for the audience to empathize and work through its own feelings.

Farce continues to be a popular form of entertainment, especially in movies and on television. Most romantic comedies contain at least some element of farce, usually in the form of misunderstandings or mistaken assumptions between the romantically linked couple. Numerous comedies also rely on farce’s slapstick comedy, placing characters in physically precarious or unlikely situations, such as an obese man in a bikini contest or a blind person flying an airplane. Many of these examples border on the offensive, as farce seeks to push the boundaries not only of what is believable, but also of what is considered socially acceptable.

Bibliography

Byrne, John. Writing Comedy. London: Methuen Drama, 2012. Print.

Fontaine, Michael, and Adele C. Scafuro. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.

Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.

Marshall, C. W., George Kovacs, and Ian C. Storey. No Laughing Matter: Studies in Athenian Comedy. London: Bristol Classical P, 2012. Print.

Olson, S. D., and Jeffrey Henderson. Ancient Comedy and Reception: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey Henderson. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014. Print.

Revermann, Martin. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy. New York: Cambridge UP, 2014. Print.

Rex, Walter E. Molière's Strategies: Timely Reflections on His Art of Comedy. New York: Lang, 2013. Print.

Swanson, Alan. David Garrick and the Development of English Comedy: A Study of Adaptation on the Eighteenth-Century Stage. Lewiston: Mellen, 2013. Print.

"The Farcical Frenzy of Noises Off: A Look at the History of a Farce." Alley Theatre, 20 Sept. 2024, www.alleytheatre.org/the-farcical-frenzy-of-noises-off-a-look-at-the-history-of-a-far/. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.