Drama Essay
2011 HSC Question
How are taboos used in black comedy to challenge and confront the audience, and make them laugh?
In your answer, refer to study and experience of TWO of the texts set for study
Black Comedy, as defined within both an Aristotelian-cathartic model and through a Freudian psychological perspective, aims to allow its audience to bypass the mind’s censor and to allow release of otherwise socially impermissible emotions on issues that are of a dark or macabre nature. It is a form of theatre that transforms illicit and taboo subject matter into an acrid, yet humorous performance piece, thus challenging and confronting an audience and also making them laugh. Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore is hysterically funny and deeply tragic at once, serving as a satirical dissection of terrorism, albeit through dark and shocking theatrical means. In addition, Neil LaBute’s The Shape of things is not overtly comic but rather the idea of an art major shaping a person as an object is an absurd one, confronting the audience through the humiliation and subsequent suffering of the protagonist. The plays studied deal with a paradox; how can the subject of death, violence to humans or animals, sexual perversion, social dysfunction and sexual dysfunction possibly be comic? Black Comedy deals with “what is often uncomfortable or supressed,” and the subsequent release of that suppressed material is what gives rise to laughter.
The Lieutenant of Inishmore seeks to test the limits of theatricality, and to push the boundaries of what can be shown on stage thereby continually and consistently challenging the moral, social, political and cultural norms of the audience, and at the same time making them laugh. The play delves into the violent and dark side of life, exploring both cruelty and comedy whereby Mcdonagh intends to shock the audience through the raw presentation of gruesome and bloody violence. McDonagh uses explicit cruelty to expose the pointlessness
How are taboos used in black comedy to challenge and confront the audience, and make them laugh?
In your answer, refer to study and experience of TWO of the texts set for study
Black Comedy, as defined within both an Aristotelian-cathartic model and through a Freudian psychological perspective, aims to allow its audience to bypass the mind’s censor and to allow release of otherwise socially impermissible emotions on issues that are of a dark or macabre nature. It is a form of theatre that transforms illicit and taboo subject matter into an acrid, yet humorous performance piece, thus challenging and confronting an audience and also making them laugh. Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore is hysterically funny and deeply tragic at once, serving as a satirical dissection of terrorism, albeit through dark and shocking theatrical means. In addition, Neil LaBute’s The Shape of things is not overtly comic but rather the idea of an art major shaping a person as an object is an absurd one, confronting the audience through the humiliation and subsequent suffering of the protagonist. The plays studied deal with a paradox; how can the subject of death, violence to humans or animals, sexual perversion, social dysfunction and sexual dysfunction possibly be comic? Black Comedy deals with “what is often uncomfortable or supressed,” and the subsequent release of that suppressed material is what gives rise to laughter.
The Lieutenant of Inishmore seeks to test the limits of theatricality, and to push the boundaries of what can be shown on stage thereby continually and consistently challenging the moral, social, political and cultural norms of the audience, and at the same time making them laugh. The play delves into the violent and dark side of life, exploring both cruelty and comedy whereby Mcdonagh intends to shock the audience through the raw presentation of gruesome and bloody violence. McDonagh uses explicit cruelty to expose the pointlessness