The definition of the word Perplex it to “completely baffle someone on the point of confusion” this was the definition that was given from the Oxford Dictionary. Perplex Directed by Sarah Giles written by Marius von Mayenburg, is a play that takes four characters and places them in an apartment to create a world that consists of theory to existence as to why the human race exists and what life has to offer for us? The strength and weaknesses of Perplex is demonstrated by the many theatrical elements such as staging, lighting, costume and language leaving the audience with an experience.
Marius von Mayenburg is a German playwright. He is the new up and coming star of European theatre. Best known for his work The Ugly One and The Cold Child. Marius started script writing in 1994 creating pieces that are unlike no other. His play Perplex saw its English-language premiere in April 2014 at the Sydney Theatre Company, Australia.
Perplex is an absurdist play that consists of four main characters Andrea Demetriades, Rebecca Messey, Tim Walter and Glenn Hazeldine. Throughout the play the characters are placed in an apartment that is subject to be their home but yet also the subject of the play. The play opens up as any other regular play. A couple comes home from holidays and soon than realise that they have not paid their electricity bill. It is than to come to realise that there is a smell in the air and there is an unusual plant that is located in the kitchen. This is when the play takes a turn when another couple comes out and argues their way stating that this is their apartment and they are trespassing. It is than takes a turn and heads into another direction where the unbelievable sets in and the questions occurs.
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...cting as it was being over dramatized. This acts as a contradiction as the playwright is a German playwright and he is acting out of the norms of society showing that nothing is what it seems.
The stage design of Perplex wasn’t at all the unusual type of stage you would think for an absurdist play. Towards the end of the play, the characters start to break out of their characters and they start to communicate with the audience in how they feel they are being “watched” breaking down the fourth wall. This is linked back to how everyone in society is watching everyone’s movements. As Andréa was conversing with her thoughts, Tim appears to be breaking down the set. This again had an element of confrontation, confusion and provoked emotion. This was shown when Andrea was performing her monologue, Andrea cried out saying “but it is my turn, my turn to speak
The characters address the audience; the fast movement from scene to scene juxtaposing past and present and prevents us from identifying with particular characters, forcing us to assess their points of view; there are few characters who fail to repel us, as they display truly human complexity and fallibility. That fallibility is usually associated with greed and a ruthless disregard for the needs of others. Emotional needs are rarely acknowledged by those most concerned with taking what they maintain is theirs, and this confusion of feeling and finance contributes to the play's ultimate bleak mood.
Throughout the piece, we see the use of audience as active participants to amplify the didactic message of the play. In the literature we see many instances where the author uses this cognitive distancing as a way to disrupt the stage illusion and make the audience active members of the play. Forcing the audience into an analytical standpoint as opposed to passively accepting whats happening in their conscious minds. This occurs time and time again in the fourth act of the play. The characters repeatedly break down the fourth wall and engage the audience with open participation. We see this in the quotation from the end of the fourth Act of the play:
These two are blind to the truth concerning Tartuffe and fall victim to his wiles. The fact that these two are too weak to see the truth is a basic human flaw as well as a major theme of the play, represented through their flawed characters. If anything, Madame Pernelle and Orgon are incredibly gullible. One author suggests that this gullibility is a shared family trait, stating that “his mother shares his capacity for self-delusion even after Tartuffe has been found out (we cannot always judge by what we see)” (Weals).
...ing something that they had either experienced or had a family member experience. As a result, it caused them to identify with the play. The manner in which this play has been configured such that it is drawing on the predatory and imperialistic tendencies displayed by multinational conglomerates provides a way for today's audience to identify with the plight of the characters and their realm.
It was Jan Kott’s interpretation as Theatre of the Grotesque (1930’s) that inspired Peter Brook of the Royal Shakespeare Company to present an Epic Theatre interpretation of the play diametrically opposed to all traditional approaches. This was a pivotal presentation that radically and profoundly influenced future productions. The Christian interpretations follow the Aristotelian tradition while Nihilists follow the Epic Theatre, in the Platonic Tradition.
... and ambiguity. Shakespeare uses the ironies found in the play so that we will remember his play's limits. It cannot produce an ideal, nor can we as an audience.
suspenseful happens in any of the three acts, just as nothing exciting happens in Grover's Corners. The play also ignores most dramatic conventions. In the beginning, the Stage Manager saunters on to an empty stage to talk directly to the audience; he tells them that the play is ready to begin. He then describes the appearance of Grover's Corners and its inhabitants. The play also ignores the unity of time and place. Between the first
...erpreted as dark and significant to the period. The comedy Wilde achieves is at the expense of the characters who are seemingly intelligent adding to the ironic structure that much of the comedy is based on. Many of the comic elements of the play are shown through human reactions to Victorian repression and the effect it has on the men and women of the time. Love seems to be nonexistent within the finds of the fierce and brutal Aristocracy when so many of the qualities they value are not based on human qualities but that of the class’s social norms. Wildes Characters are at often times not subtle about their distaste in marriage and love, Algernon is no exception to this “In aried lie, three is company, two is none” showing that they all have distorted views on many of the social practices that make them morally sound, thus adding to the satire elements of the play.
... as it unfolds. It is saddening to see these characters fail again and again to understand each other, and themselves. Within our own lives however, we are not so different from the characters of the play. Many things are beyond our comprehension, and it is easy for suffering to arise when people are without understanding. Alas, Shakespeare has given us fair warning of the tragedy that could spring from incomprehension. It would be unwise to take this warning for granted; perhaps a pursuit of greater understanding will correlate with less tragedy among our lives.
Characterisation is vastly different in the film when compared to the play. This, however, is done so as to make more sense to a modern
The writer uses third-person limited omniscient point of view to tell the story. The author can read through Elizabeth Bates’s mind and perc...
The play defies easy definition and various critics have labeled it variously as absurdist, existentialist, comical, burlesque, metaphorical or grim. The playwright on the other hand maintained that all through the creation of his work he strove to bring in the comic element and any tragedy that seems part of the play, may have crept in inadvertently and whenever it has been staged as a serious play, audience reaction to it has been cold.
Furthermore, Shakespeare introduces the Players to add an extra dimension to his ideas on the effects of disassembly. The juxtaposition of the `play within a play' acts as a subtle literary device that suggests that, as Hamlet's play occurs in the middle of the play, the play itself revolves around the pretence undertaken by the majority of Shakespeare's characters.
...d of the play who goes against order, or their given role of society is deemed unnatural. This becomes problematic because of the constraints it places on the acceptable of any change in society. Forgiveness and love are not attainable within this worldview.
In a more extreme version of the play, directed by Baz Lurhmann, some of the weapons such as swords were replaced by modern day guns, but despite this he still managed to keep it all in context by cleverly placing words, or using other satire. With this paper I hope to produce my own unique version of the play.