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339 Chapter 8. GENET: the Balcony Pirandello and Genet Would Have 339 Chapter 8. GENET: The Balcony Pirandello and Genet would have agreed that an aspect of theatricality, "the element of fake, of sham, of artificiality" is undeniably present in the so-called real world. Our existence in the world, according to both of them, incorporates a lifetime of role playing, "of being and appearance, of the imaginary and the real"!. In Genet's dramatic world, as in Pirandello's, there is theatre within theatre (plays within plays) and also theatre about theatricality in life (metatheatre^). In these plays reality and illusion are often indistinguishable from one another. Madame Irma's balcon is at once a house of illusions where everything is unreal and also the very symbol of the real universe outside. "At one and the same time Genet proclaims the illusion of reality and the reality of illusion."^ The commonalty of several of the concerns of the two playwrights is evident and Richard Schechner talks of "the Pirandello-like theatricality"^ of The Balcony (1956). What Richard N. Coe calls Genet's initial principle, that "the ultimate reality of the Self is a Void which may be given any shape, consequently any reality, by appearance"^, has also been seen to be Pirandello's fearful conjecture. Unlike Pirandello, however, Genet's characters, as will be seen, are never confused about their identities. The "bishop" knows 1 Jean-Paul Sartre, 'The Maids". Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr, trans. Bernard Frechtman (New York: Pantheon, 1963) 611. 2 Lionel Abel, Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form (1963; New York: HiU 85 Wang, 1969) 60, 80. Lionel Abel describes metatheatre as comprising of plays about "life seen as already theatricahzed". He goes on to call The Balcony a "metaplay because of the theatricality of the characters who bring their own scenarios to the brothel. He also points to Genet's deliberate presentation of the dressing and undressing of the characters in the presence of the audience as a metatheatrical element. 3 Benjamin Nelson, The Balcony and Parisian Existentialism", Tulane Drama Review 7 . 3 (Spring 1963): 61. t Richard Schechner, "Genet's The Balcony: A 1981 Perspective on a 1979/80 Production". Modem Drama 3 . 1 (March 1982): 87. 5 Richard N. Coe, The Vision of Jean Genet (London: Peter Owen, 1968) 238. 340 himself to be a gas meter reader. There would never be a character or situation in his plays like the trio in So It Is (If You Think So) who are caught in a mutually supportive and also mutually confusing situation. This chapter will show that Genet's concern is with the elaboration of man as a being who realizes his true self (of which the subconscious is the index) in the playing of roles. While characters from the pre-Pirandellian era are given a well defined nature but choose to mask their real selves by means of the roles they take, in Pirandello's creations there is a deep confusion regarding the identities of the characters. Sometimes it is the characters (like Leone Gala, for example) who are tormented by the doubt that there may not be a self beneath the many roles they call theirs, that there may be only "nothing" beneath the mask. In other instances the fluidity, or, rather, quite definite plurality, of the identity of a character may be such that it is bewildering to those who encounter him or her (as in the case of Signora Ponza). On the other hand, Genet offers up his creatures as men who are insignificant until they gain stature through their roles. They are conscious role players who find fulfillment by adopting a mask and identity associated with greater power than they possess in the real world. Pirandello made amply clear his realization that man's personality might be merely the sum total of his masks. Genet carries this thesis a step further to the Freudian postulation that man's true being resides in his subconscious and unconscious rather than in his conscious state. Thus man's real character can only be gauged by delving into the nature of his dreams and fantasies. It is only in these wish-fulfilling illusions that he allows himself abandoned expression. It is here that reality resides, here that a person's being is located. In man's conscious life only his role playing ability is demonstrated. We see only the mask of each human being, the public image alone. 341 His fantasies often have a sexual bias and, in The Balcony, the setting of the brothel is chosen as the ideal place where man can, without inhibition, actualize his fantasies and dreams. It is here alone that he can, for a while, be his own true self as he envisages himself. As June Schlueter says, "The characters in Genet's plays are constantly employing art to externalize and give form to their innermost desires. Whether it be the low-life sisters of The Maids, the masquerading brothel clientele of The Balcony, or the masked Negroes of The Blacks, Genet's characters dramatize a vision of illusion as the framework of reality." She goes on to say, "This relationship between the role and the real is at the heart of Genet's drama. Genet's vision of the relationship between the individual and society is one which does not simply acknowledge role playing as an alternate self, whether compatible or incompatible with the real self, but seeks to eliminate the disparity between the two selves through acknowledging their simultaneous existence and absolute interdependence."^ There is an inseparable blend of the real and the fictive in the role playing in the plays. The customers at the brothel demand authentic props while they play make-believe roles. They aim for a naturalistically convincing presentation of their "plays". In The Maids there is a basic naturalistic stage but the characters are to be dressed in a very outlandishly theatrical way. Besides, Genet expressed his wish that the girls' roles be played by boys in drag. Genet seeks to achieve what Sartre has described as "derealization", an attempt to "strike at the root of the apparent" and he does it by his determination "to eliminate nature".^ Bradby uses the term "decalageT to describe the "gap, or dislocation in the presentation of 6 June Schlueter, Metafictional Characters in Modem Drama (New York: Columbia U P, 1977) 36, 37. 7 Sartre. 'The Maids". Saint Genet 611-613. 342 reality so as to prevent the audience from taking it at face value" .^ In The Balcony the clients in the brothel, dressed in theatrical cothurni, want some make-believe details and some real ones. In The Blacks the roles of the white characters are played by black actors wearing grotesque and obvious white masks. In The Screens one real object is to be placed on the stage by the screen on which the characters draw the decor. The theatre, that meeting point of illusion and reality, is, then, the perfect symbol of the duality dramatized in Genet's plays. While Pirandello's plays belong to the realm of naturalism in terms of the characters and action (Six Characters is an obvious exception) and to the level of the philosophical where the discussion generated by the action is concerned, realism is invaded by the surrealistic and symbolic in Genet's work. A dream-like aura of fantasy depiction exists so that the presentation constantly underlines its theatrical nature. His theatre may lack well-defined plot, coherence, social truth and strong characterization and construction but, as Martin Esslin points out, it does undoubtedly have psychological truth (as a reading of the plays makes amply clear).^ The Maids (1947), Genet's first performed play, is perhaps the most coherent expression of his interest in role playing and also the most perfect of his works in terms of construction. It presents the most straight-forward scenario of role playing in the exposition of the sisters, Claire and Solange, who work for "Madame". Their obsessive playing of her role is the direct outcome of their duality of attitude towards her: they both adore and abhor their glamorous young employer. Her careless generosity and thoughtless kindness both humiliate them and move them to admiration. For that matter they have the same contradictory feelings for themselves and for each 8 David Bradby, Modem French Drama 1940 - 1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1984) 175. 9 Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd (1961; London: Penguin, 1991) 232. 343 Other. When they entertain themselves in her absence by playing a little game in which one of them pretends to be her, they are fulfilling their dual fantasy of both becoming Madame and hurting her. These complex and contradictory attitudes all rise to the surface and find expression when Claire plays Madame and Solange plays Claire. But sometimes, when Solange addresses "Madame", Claire answers as Claire. Sometimes, also, she calls her sister by her real name, Solange, rather than the name of the character she is playing, Claire. The multiple identities seem to co-exist simultaneously. While playing the game Claire is both herself and Madame. Solange is both Claire and herself. During the course of the play first Claire plays the dominant role and then Solange. Finally Claire dominates the play acting once again. She commands Solange's responses by acting the role of Madame to Solange's Claire and then, when Solange tries to elude the conclusion towards which Claire is directing the action, she also addresses her sister as Solange directly and persuades her to allow the action to reach the intended resolution. It appears that Solange does not want to let Claire drink the poisoned tea but Claire forces her to take the role of Claire and make Madame drink it.
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