The Humor of Red Noses by Peter
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LAUGHING AT THE DEVIL: THE HUMOR OF RED NOSES BY PETER BARNES by PAULA JOSIE RODRIGUEZ, B.F.A. A THESIS IN THEATRE ARTS Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS Approved December, 1998 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are several people I would like to thank for their motivation and assistance throughout my graduate career at Texas Tech University. I wish to thank my thesis chairperson. Dr. Jonathan Marks for his encouragement, faith, and guidance through the entire writing process. I would also like to thank Professor Christopher Markle for his stimulating insights and criticism throughout the production of Red Noses. Special recognition goes to Dr. George W. Sorensen for recmiting me to Texas Tech University. This thesis would not have been possible without his patience and unwavering commitment to this project. I would also like to thank the cast of Red Noses for their infinite creativity and energy to the production. Finally, I am gratefiil to my friend and editor Deirdre Pattillo for her inmieasurable support, motivation, and assistance in this thesis writing process. n TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 n. ANALYSIS OF THE THEMES AND APPROACHES IN THE WORK OF PETER BARNES 10 m. PRE-PRODUCTION WORK FOR RED NOSES 26 IV. CREATIVE PROCESS AND PRESENTATION 39 V CONCLUSION 60 BIBLIOGRAPHY 68 m CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION During World War n, as Allied forces battled fascism and the annihilation of six million Jews had begun, a joke circulated among European Jews: Two Jews had a plan to assassinate Hitler. They learned that he drove by a certain comer at noon each day, and they waited for him there with their guns well hidden. At exactly noon they were ready to shoot, but there was no sign of Hitler. Five minutes later, nothing. Another five minutes went by, but no sign of Hitler. By 12:15 they had started to give up hope. 'My goodness,' said one of the men, 'I hope nothing's happened to him!' ^ Hiunor about serious subjects, also known as black or gallows humor, has been bom of atrocities throughout history. Laughter at a somber subject, such as the Holocaust, or, in more contemporary situations, racism and crime, seems taboo- even disrespectful. How can a person react to a tragic event with laughter? When choosing to direct the play Red Noses by British playwright Peter Barnes, I challenged myself, the creative team of designers, and the actors to incite the audience to laughter despite the grim nature of the play's milieu: the suffering and death of millions due to the Black Plague. After the decision by the faculty to produce this play, my primary obstacle to overcome was my own doubt as to how the conservative audiences of Lubbock, ' Steve Lipman, Laughter in Hell: The Use of Humor during the Holocaust (Northvale: Aronson Inc. 1991) 16. 1 Texas would react to a play that so blatantly portrays Christian leaders as irreverent and inhumane in a time of great despair. Much of the humor was rooted within the sufferers of the plague, for whom no cure was available. In the 14* century, when the play is set, little could be done to subdue the devastating force of the disease. Painful yet inventive remedies were created as futile attempts to deter the disease. Tragically, millions died stigmatized, neglected, and alone; fully one-third of the European population died as a result of the plague. Barnes stretches the bounds of comedy, alternating between bathroom humor and political/religious satire. I feared that audiences would react with discomfort to Barnes's style, distancing themselves from the subject matter, for fear of appearing unsympathetic. This thesis production of Red Noses at Texas Tech University attempted to introduce Lubbock audiences to the works of Peter Barnes by involving them in a production that focused on the humor in the text combined with empathy for the subject matter. Throughout the play Barnes attacks the audience with political diatribe, yet I chose to soften the rhetoric by focusing on the main storyline: a group of misfits uniting to bring laughter and hope to the dying. My directorial approach parallels Barnes's writing style. I wanted the audience to watch, laugh, react, and learn without feeling preached to. This is not to say that I didn't want the audience to feel discomfort at times; rather, they should immerse themselves in the world of the play through the actions of the characters, wholly, without feeling threatened. For many years. Red Noses had been suggested to me by fiiends and colleagues as something I should do. I have always had a penchant for plays containing dark humor. In fact, I have directed two other plays that fall in the "dark comedy" category: The Marriage of Bette and Boo by Christopher Durang and Marvin's Room by Scott McPherson. Both plays involve unpleasant topics: death, alcoholism, loss of religious faith, family conflicts. However, in choosing Red Noses. I realized the need to challenge myself both personally and as an artist. I questioned my beliefs as a Roman Catholic. Could I direct a play that portrays the Pope as a howling, power-hungry lunatic? A nun talking graphically about sex? Through research I discovered that Bames's plays are deeply grounded in historical facts. In researching the plays by Peter Bames, I was overcome by his ability to make creative interpretations of historical events while remaining historically accurate. In The Ruling Class he scathingly attacks the British government, the Tory Party, and England's class system. In Laughter! Bames parallels the savageries of Ivan the Terrible with World War II concentration camps. The epilogue of its Act Two (Auschwitz) prepared me for the style of humor abundant in Red Noses: the pla> ends with two vaudeville-style Jewish comics, described as the Boffo Boys of Birkenau, as they make their final appearance in the gas chamber: Bimko: According to the latest statistics, one man dies every time I breathe. Bieberstein: Have you tried toothpaste? Bimko: No, the Dental Officer said my teeth were fine, only the giuns have to come out... They cough and stagger. Bieberstein: I could be wrong, but I think this act is dying. Bimko: The way to beat hydrocyanide gas is by holding your breath for five minutes. It's just a question of mind over matter. They fall to their knees... Bimko: Dear Lord God, you help strangers so why shouldn't you help us? We're the chosen people. Bieberstein: Abe, so what did we have to do to be chosen? Bimko: Do me a favour, don't ask. Whateverit was it wastoomuch... Hymie you were right, this act's dead on its feet... They die in darkness. ^ Impressed by the courage of Bames to write such a horrific yet historical image, I completed reading Laughter! with a sense of hope, rather than the usual shame and anger at the crimes conmiitted. By using historical evidence and characters, Bames is able to give the audience a foundation of reality on which to layer the fictional insanity of his play. What attracted me most to Red Noses was not the creative use of history, but the use of theatre in presenting the subject matter. I believed the play contained endless theatrical possibilities, both visually and emotionally. On a personal level, I was inspired by Bames's humanity and his plea for change within ourselves as a human race. In the ensuing chapters, I will discuss the use of laughter as a means of dealing with pain, suffering, and loss. Bames effectively uses comedy to combat the ^ Peter Bames, Peter Bames: Collected Plavs (London: Heinemann 1981) 410-411. cmel inhumanities that have existed through the centuries. In Red Noses, many of the characters use theatre as an instrument to instill joy and htimanity. The Floties (the followers of Father Flote), in particular, represent a group of misfits desperately trying to fit into a society that does not want them for reasons of physical appearance, class, intellect, etc. Characters such as Brodin, a soldier without a war; LeGme, a blind man; and Frapper, a stutterer, seek refiige with the Floties and find salvation by turning their disabilities into theatre. I never lacked motivation or belief in the material I was going to work with, yet the Floties were my greatest draw to the script; they persuaded me to select the play for production consideration. My final inducement for choosing this play for production lies within the similarities between the disease known as the Black Plague in 1348 and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in America. The handling of the plague victims (primarily being ostracized by Church and family) reminded me of the hysterical behavior toward HIV and ADDS sufferers during the 1980s. Although the world had precious little information regarding the vims, so that ignorance of the subject was understandable, this fact does not excuse the lack of compassion exhibited toward people suffering debilitating illnesses ending in horrific deaths. While Bames wrote Red Noses in 1978, prior to the AIDS epidemic, the similarities of the treatment of the victims remains uncanny; he recognizes this similarity as he states: "For if Red Noses was written today - 1985 - it would be much less optimistic. The world has moved on in seven years, and not toward the light. Men and women can still be overcome by a sudden wave of compassion for the poor and sick but they quickly get over it. .. ."^ Emotionally, it affected me that as a human race, we fail to leam from history.