Journal article
Breasts, couples, children and other cliches: Visual/verbal imagery in surrealist drama
Word & image (London. 1985), v 4(1), pp 292-296
01 Jan 1988
Abstract
In the first moments of
Les Mystères de l'amour
(1924), his only play labelled "
drame surrealiste,
" Roger Vltrac uses visual imagery to initiate a radical shift from conventional staging. The play opens with a Prologue in which the protagonist is seen "tracing sinuous lines in the mud with a stick." He is, he tells a policeman, "finishing off [the] hair" of a female portrait painted on the wall of a house. According to the stage directions, "He leaves, tracing a sinuous line. The curtain slowly falls" (p. 229)(1). In this brief Prologue the protagonist by his tracing both adds to (and partially relocates) the set and leads the audience's gaze away from the stage. Appropriately,, the play's first tableau begins in "A box overhanging the stage. The proscenium lights are out. The house lights, a chandelier above the audience, are lighted" (p. 230), and the action, a parody of courtship rituals, takes place In the box, with occasional shouts Into and from the audience. Thus Vltrac transcends the two- dimensional limitations of set design and controls the audience: Initially directing its attention from the conventional locus of action and then destroying the traditional boundaries between actor and audience. The protagonist's initial gesture, reinforcing the visual aspects of theatre, ultimately undermines our basic assumptions about the genre.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Breasts, couples, children and other cliches: Visual/verbal imagery in surrealist drama
- Creators
- Annette Shandler Levitt
- Publication Details
- Word & image (London. 1985), v 4(1), pp 292-296
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis Group
- Number of pages
- 5
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- English and Philosophy; [Retired Faculty]
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:A1988M622600035
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84952180058
- Other Identifier
- 991022020739604721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Humanities, Multidisciplinary