farce

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noun

A false, derisive, or impudent imitation of something: burlesque, caricature, mock, mockery, parody, sham, travesty. See respect/contempt/standing, same/different/compare.

Definition: nonsense, satire
Antonyms: sobriety, tragedy

farce, a kind of comedy that inspires hilarity mixed with panic and cruelty in its audience through an increasingly rapid and improbable series of ludicrous confusions, physical disasters, and sexual innuendos among its stock characters. Farcical episodes of buffoonery can be found in European drama of all periods since Aristophanes, notably in medieval France, where the term originated to describe short comic interludes; but as a distinct form of full‐length comedy farce dates from the 19th century, in the works of Eugène Labiche in the 1850s, and of A. W. Pinero and Georges Feydeau in the 1880s and 1890s. Brandon Thomas's Charley's Aunt (1892) is recognized as a classic of the genre. The bedroom farce, involving bungled adultery in rooms with too many doors, has had prolonged commercial success in London's West End since the 1920s, when Ben Travers perfected the genre at the Aldwych Theatre. Joe Orton used its conventions to create a disturbing kind of satire in What the Butler Saw (1969). For a fuller account, consult Jessica Milner Davis, Farce (1978).

1. Medieval

The farce in the Middle Ages was a short comic play without moralizing or satirical intentions (as opposed to the morality and the sotie). It derived its humour from amusing situations, tricks, verbal dexterity, and sudden reversals of the action; a classic plot is one in which a would-be deceiver is finally himself deceived. About 150 farces have survived, mostly in four main collections dating from the late 15th and 16th c.; the period of the farce's popularity extends from the end of the Middle Ages well into the Renaissance, and its influence is still apparent in Molière. The word farce is usually interpreted as meaning ‘stuffing’, thus implying that farces were originally comic interpolations in serious mystery plays; but only one example of this has survived, in the 15th-c. Vie de saint Fiacre. Separate farces were sometimes performed after a mystery play to amuse or retain the audience. Another interpretation links farce to fart, meaning deceit, a notion which is present in nearly all the plays.

The origins of the farce are uncertain; there appears to be a gap in the surviving comic drama between the 13th-c. Arras plays and the farces. Some critics suggest that the fabliaux of the 13th and 14th c. fill this gap, in that they are the narrative reflections of a lost dramatic tradition. Undoubtedly the themes, settings, and structure of the fabliaux are similar to those of the farces.

Farce performances were of two main types: those organized by the Basoches, usually farces in a legal setting; and those performed by semi-professional troupes of four or five actors (men played women's roles), who would set up their stage in an open space or a market-place or a large hall. Stages were small and simple: planks supported by barrels or trestles at head-height, divided in two by a curtain behind which the actors changed. These physical limitations restrict the dimensions of most farces, which are rarely more than 500 lines long and require only two, three, or four actors. Although aimed primarily at the general public, farces were much appreciated by the upper classes; nobles and kings (e.g. René d'Anjou) employed farceurs on a permanent or occasional basis.

The characters in the farces were not abstractions, as in the soties and moralities; they were apparently real people, with names, jobs, and problems. The most frequent settings for farce plots are the home or the market square, and the recurrent themes are petty dishonesty, illicit love, stupidity, and stubbornness; but these human failings are a source of laughter, not satire. A typical farce will show (a) a ménage à trois in which the lover, often the local priest, attempts to seduce the willing wife of a jealous but foolish husband (L'Amoureux, Martin de Cambrai); or (b) a simple dispute and exchange of insults between husband and wife (L'Obstination des femmes); or (c) a series of attempts at dishonesty (Le Pasté et la tarte). Though the action is set in the real world, the farces are not realistic. The main characters are stereotypes—jealous husband, lecherous priest, unfaithful wife, dishonest merchant, adoring father, semi-educated teacher, etc. They do not develop in the course of the action, which springs from the conflict between several of these stereotypes in a particular situation. The outcome of a farce is usually a predictable surprise. The stereotypical woman of the farces—she is deceitful, stubborn, crafty, foul-mouthed, and over-sexed beyond her husband's capacity—has caused some critics to claim the genre is anti-feminist; but the stereotypical men are no more admirable, and are often stupider.

The sources of humour in the farce are not only the characters and the situations, but also the language. The best farces, e.g. Pathelin, Martin de Cambrai, use language not merely as a supplementary means of provoking laughter (verbal jokes, puns, insults), but as central to the misunderstandings and arguments. The importance of language, together with the restrictions of versification (octosyllabic couplets with mnemonic rhymes, and frequent rondeaux-triolets) and the need to create a tightly structured denouement, meant that, even if the public of the farces was ill-educated and illiterate, this was certainly not true of the authors.

[Graham Runnalls]

Bibliography

• B. Bowen, Les Caractéristiques essentielles de la farce (1964)
• J.-C. Aubailly, Le Théâtre médiéval profane et comique (1975)
• A. Tissier (ed.), Recueil de farces, 6 vols. (1986-90)

2. 1550 to the Present

There are many affinities and common elements linking the medieval farces which flourished c.1450-1550 with the Comédie-Italienne of the 17th c., the noisy pantomime at the Théâtre des Funambules in the 1830s, the topical verve of the vaudevilles popular around 1815-45, and the more literary farces of Labiche and Feydeau. Although the use of verse is now the exception rather than the rule, all these dramatic forms draw on stock characters and are, in varying degrees, irreverent, boisterous, and subversive of authority. With the exception of the mimes, they all revel in word-play, some of it, especially in the 17th and 18th c., indecent or scatological. They also share a fondness for practical jokes and elaborate comic business.

The native French farce of the early 17th-c. Hôtel de Bourgogne was associated with former mountebanks like Tabarin, Turlupin, Gaultier-Garguille, and fat Gros-Guillaume. It originated in the fairground booths where travelling quacks used parades, crude dramatic sketches, to attract customers. During the 17th c. this broad native farce, elements of which find their way into Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671), was rivalled, though not displaced, by the greater virtuosity of the Comédie-Italienne, itself a naturalized version of the Italian commedia dell'arte with its stock characters, masks, colourful costumes, acrobatic skills, and improvised ensemble playing based on an outline sketch (scenario). Borrowing some of the characters of the Comédie-Italienne, the native parade evolved in the course of the 18th c. into a racy entertainment with topical allusions and scatological word-play. Its appeal went beyond popular audiences and it was taken up c.1730 by the gentry in a vogue which lasted until the Revolution of 1789.

The ideological pressures of the Revolution and the censorship and cultural pretensions of the Napoleonic regime militated against the gross levity of traditional farce, but the reforms of 1806-7 eventually made it possible for licensed theatres like the Variétés and the Vaudeville to continue the disrespectful and scabrous traditions of old farce without the coarseness and horseplay of the original. Advances in public education and aspirations to gentility among the rising commercial and manufacturing classes in the mid-19th c. diminished the appeal of broad and indecent farce, but the power of farce to shock and challenge conventional society is confirmed in the second half of the century by the fast, witty, and inventive plays of Labiche and Feydeau, which dispense with scatology and crude knockabout routines, and by Jarry's violent and aggressive parody, Ubu roi, which does not. A revolutionary development of farce in the 20th c. is Beckett's En attendant Godot, where the routines and patter of the music-hall are used to metaphysical ends.

[S. Beynon John]

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• Schools, Styles, and Forms - farce: light, dramatic composition with improbable plot, broad satirical comedy
• Theatrical Forms and Venues - farce: low comedy, based on horseplay and absurd situations
• Foolishness, Bunkum, and Trifles

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In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases, culminating in an ending which often involves an elaborate chase scene. Farces are often highly incomprehensible plot-wise (due to the large number of plot twists and random events that often occur), but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the plot in order to avoid becoming confused and overwhelmed. Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances. Farces have been written for the stage and film.

Japan has a centuries-old tradition of farce plays called Kyōgen. These plays are performed as comic relief during the long, serious Noh plays.

Contents 1 Representative examples: A chronology 1.1 Britain 1.2 France 1.3 Germany 1.4 Italy 1.5 Poland 1.6 Russia 1.7 Spain 1.8 United States 1.9 US Television 1.10 Canada 1.11 Australia 1.12 Animated 2 References 3 External links

Representative examples: A chronology

Britain

• Anonymus: The Second Shepherds' Play (14th century)
• Chaucer: "The Canterbury Tales" (14th century)
• William Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors (ca.1592)
• Aphra Behn: The Rover (1677)
• Henry Fielding: The Author's Farce (1730)
• Arthur Murphy: The Citizen (1761)
• Samuel Foote: The Liar (1762)
• Elizabeth Inchbald: Appearance Is Against Them (1785); The Wedding Day (1794)
• John Maddison Morton: Box and Cox (1847)
• Charles Dickens: The Lamplighter (1879)
• Arthur Wing Pinero: The Magistrate (1885)
• Brandon Thomas: Charley's Aunt (1892)
• Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
• Ben Travers: Thark (1927)
• Noël Coward: Hay Fever (1925); Present Laughter (1939); Blithe Spirit (1941)
• Thornton Wilder: The Matchmaker (1954)
• Philip King: See How They Run (1945) Big Bad Mouse (1957) Pools Paradise (1961)
• Peter Shaffer: Black Comedy (1965)
• Joe Orton: Loot (1967) What the Butler Saw (1969)
• Michael Pertwee: Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! (1971)
• Anthony Marriott & Alistair Foot: No Sex Please, We're British (1975)
• John Cleese & Connie Booth: Fawlty Towers (1975)
• John Chapman & Anthony Marriott: Shut Your Eyes and Think of England (1977)
• Alan Ayckbourn: Taking Steps (1979)
• Tom Stoppard: On the Razzle (1981)
• Derek Benfield: Touch and Go (1982)
• Michael Frayn: Noises Off (1982)
• Nigel Williams: W.C.P.C. (1982)
• Ken Friedman: Claptrap (1983)
• Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen: Chance in a Million (1984)
• Miles Tredinnick: Laugh? I Nearly Went To Miami! (1986)
• Alan Ayckbourn: A Small Family Business (1987)
• Miles Tredinnick: It’s Now Or Never! (1991)
• Tom Kempinski: Sex Please, We're Italian! (1991)
• Ray Cooney: Funny Money (1994)
• Robin Hawdon: Perfect Wedding (1994)
• Steven Moffat: Coupling (2001)
• Miles Tredinnick: Up Pompeii! (2011)

France

• The Boy and the Blind Man, 13th century, oldest written French farce.
• La Farce de maître Pierre Pathelin (c. 1457)
• Molière: Tartuffe (1664)
• Labiche: La Cagnotte (1864)and other plays.
• Alfred Hennequin and Alfred Delacour: Le Procès Veauradieux (1875)
• Georges Feydeau: Le Dindon (1896) (aka Sauce for the Goose)
• Octave Mirbeau : Farces et moralités (1904).
• Georges Feydeau: A Flea in Her Ear (1907)
• Marc Camoletti: Boeing Boeing (1960) and Pyjama pour Six (1985) (aka Don't Dress for Dinner) [1]
• Jean Poiret: La Cage aux Folles (1973)

Germany

• Carl Laufs & Wilhelm Jacoby: Pension Schöller (1890)
• Franz Arnold & Ernst Bach: Weekend im Paradies (1928) [2]
• Miles Tredinnick with Ursula Lyn and Adolf Opel: ...Und Morgen Fliegen Wir Nach Miami (1987)

Italy

• Dario Fo: Morte accidentale di un anarchico also known as Accidental Death of an Anarchist was first played on December 5, 1970 in Varese, Italy

Poland

• Gabriela Zapolska: The Morality of Mrs. Dulska,^[1] 1906
• Sławomir Mrożek: Tango, 1964 (translation: Grove Press, New York, 1968);^[2] Emigranci (The Émigrés), 1974

Russia

• Nikolai Gogol The Government Inspector (also translated as The Inspector General)
• Anton Chekhov A Marriage Proposal and The Bear
• Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita

Spain

• Cervantes Saavedra's Don Quixote
• Mortadelo y Filemón

United States

• Good Neighbor Sam, starring Jack Lemmon
• Is He Dead?, Mark Twain
• The Three Stooges
• Joseph Kesselring: Arsenic and Old Lace (1941)
• The Mating Season dir.Mitchell Leisen
• Stephen Sondheim: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, book by Larry Gelbart (1962)
• Abe Burrows: Cactus Flower
• Terrence McNally: The Ritz
• Christopher Durang: Beyond Therapy
• Neil Simon: Rumors (1988)
• Lend Me a Tenor (1989)
• Oscar (1991 film)
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
• Freaky Friday (1976 film)
• The Shaggy Dog (1959 film)
• Monkey Business (1931 film)
• The Bank Dick
• What's Up, Doc? (1972 film)
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
• The Nerd (1981) by Larry Shue
• The Foreigner (play) (1983) by Larry Shue
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Now You See Him, Now You Don't
• The Million Dollar Duck
• Million Dollar Mystery
• Rat Race (2001 film)
• The Love Bug
• Herbie Rides Again
• 101 Dalmatians (1996 film)
• Home Alone
• The Pink Panther (1963 film)
• Never give a sucker an even break
• No Deposit, No Return
• Problem Child (1990 film)
• Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
• The Hangover
• Leading Ladies (2004)

US Television

• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969)
• I Love Lucy
• Frasier
• Three's Company (1977–1984)
• 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001)
• Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm (1999–present)
• Arrested Development (2003–2006)
• Frasier (1993–2004)
• Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-2008)
• The Big Bang Theory (2007–present)

Canada

• This Hour Has 22 Minutes
• Royal Canadian Air Farce (actually a sketch-comedy show, not a farce except in name)

Australia

• Juliette Sinclair-Walker

Animated

• Chowder (TV series)
• The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
• Chicken Run

References

1. ^ Teresa Murjas (2007). "Zapolska, Gabriela: The Morality of Mrs. Dulska". The University of Chicago Press Books. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/253152.ctl. Retrieved 2007-11-26. 
2. ^ August Grodzicki, "Bardzo polska tragikomedia." Życie Warszawy nr 5; 07-01-1976

• "Farce" by encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com

External links

Look up farce in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• IMDB list of film and television farces
• Farce films at Allmovie

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - farce, parodi
v. tr. - parodiere

Nederlands (Dutch)
klucht, schijnvertoning, pittige vulling (van vlees), pittiger maken, vullen

Français (French)
n. - (Théât, fig) farce
v. tr. - faire des plaisanteries, farcir

Deutsch (German)
n. - Farce, Posse
v. - anreichern (eine Erzählung)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θεατρική) φάρσα, φαρσοκωμωδία, αστειότητα

Italiano (Italian)
farsa, buffonata

Português (Portuguese)
n. - farsa (f) (Teatro)

Русский (Russian)
фарс, грубый юмор, насмешка, комедия

Español (Spanish)
n. - farsa, sainete
v. tr. - rellenar, embutir

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fars, gyckelspel

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
闹剧, 胡闹, 滑稽剧, 在穿插

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 鬧劇, 胡鬧, 滑稽劇
v. tr. - 在穿插

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 광대극, 우스운 극, 익살
v. tr. - (연극 등에) 웃음을 가미하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 笑劇, 道化芝居, ばからしいまねごと, 滑稽, 詰め物, 茶番
v. - 添える

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) حشوة , مسرحيه هزليه , مهزله‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮דרמה קומית המבוססת על אירועים מבדחים בלתי-אפשריים, פארסה, קומדיה, פעולות טפלות, העמדת-פנים, בוז‬
v. tr. - ‮תיבל (נאום או חיבור) בהערות חריפות‬

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