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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Tania Neofytou
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2020.06.008
Open University of Cyprus, Athens, Attiki, Greece
Surrealist playwrights of the twentieth century use black humour in order to express their discontent towards the society in which they live. Parody of everyday life is a way of reaction against the extensive lifestyle. The actions, the choices and the situations, in which the characters of the surrealist dramas are involved, are comic and grotesque. Surrealist dramas reject the rules of the Western theatre; the lack of plot, the absurd, the misunderstanding, the use of poetic symbols, the parody of bourgeois life, the unexpected reactions and the unreasonable behaviour of the characters are some of the factors that cause laughter and surprise the audience. In this paper we will try to reveal the humour that emerges through the surrealist plays of André Breton, Philippe Soupault, Louis Aragon and Roger Vitrac. We will also attempt to highlight the key points through which surrealism in theatre uses black humour in an effort to cover the deep melancholy and pessimistic mood of surrealist dramatists. The questions arising are; in which ways is humour a way of revolution? How can humour include dreams, ingenuity and fantasy?
Breton, Soupault, Vitrac, Aragon, surrealist theatre, humour, grotesque
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