Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 1971. / Also available online.

This thesis will counter the argument that farce is a simplistic dramatic form low in the theatrical hierarchy and demonstrate that it is both complex and multifaceted. It will be shown to have a long history and to have influenced many different dramatic forms. The thesis is in two sections. The first will explore farce in general, and the second will use the sitcom Fawlty Towers as a case study in order to explore the televisual mode and its relevance to the contemporary context. The question “What is farce?” will be answered in detail, thus developing an unambiguous perception of the genre which will form a contextual basis for the rest of the thesis. Recurring themes will be used to link chapters together and certain issues raised in early chapters will be expanded upon in later ones. A key aspect to be taken into consideration is the importance the physical plays in farce. Thus, my focus will be specifically on performance texts, and not limit itself to the “literary” texts. The theatrical hierarchy will be addressed directly, exploring why and how the genre has been delegated to the lowest rung of the hierarchical ladder. Such a classification will be destabilised and shown to be unfounded because it is based on such assumptions as tragedy being the “best” genre because it is tragedy, and farce the worst because it is farce. The conclusions made in this section will then be demonstrated by approaching farce in a more oblique manner through an exploration of Commedia dell’Arte and Medieval Carnival. This will reveal the extent to which farce and/or its techniques have manifested themselves. Fawlty Towers will be introduced to determine how farce has translated to the televisual medium. Fawlty Towers is useful because, unlike the “literary texts” studied earlier, its recordings provide visual/aural examples which are more practical in exploring farce’s physical characteristics. The farcical aspects of Commedia and Carnival will be re-explored to show how they have evolved and manifested themselves in the sitcom form. Integral to the thesis is a study on laughter. Various laughter theories will be studied in relation to Fawlty Towers to establish that, like farce, laughter is also a complicated subject matter worthy of study. Through association, farce is shown to be even more complex. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the Fawlty Towers performance text to illustrate farce’s multifaceted nature, and that it can, and should, be taken “seriously”. The series’ “closed world” will be examined to discover how it ideally suits the farcical paradigm. Then, using Victorian beliefs and ethics as a contextual base, I explore how farce parodies this outdated value system as it is played out anachronistically through the character of Basil Fawlty. The thesis terminates with a brief conclusion summing up what was analysed, while affirming that the premise proposed in the introduction has been achieved.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Western Australia, 2004.

A farce, insofar as this study is concerned, is any afterpiece which has plot, dialogue, and characters. This embraces such widely scattered varieties as burlesque, dramatic satire, pastoral, comedy, and opera. This study embraces more than a hundred farces, the most popular ones of their day.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Western Australia, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 9, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. [184]-197).

La thèse commence par une ébauche sur l'apparition et l'évolution de la farce, en prenant comme exemple la troupe des Deschiens qui s'en est inspirée, et a créé un théâtre typiquement farcesque, décalé et différent / The thesis begin with a study of appearance and evolution of practical joke, it takes as an example the Deschiens troop, who create a kind of theatre typically based on practical joke

This thesis examines the mechanical comic techniques which are characteristic of farce as a dramatic forma in the European theatre. It briefly traces the origins of the term in the mediaeval liturgical drama and the history of its critical usage. Contemporary criticism of the genre rests upon the common, though ill-defined, understanding that farce is a specific form of comedy and that certain distinguishing characteristics are associated with plays which may be described as farces; although farcical techniques and scenes of farce may also be utilized by other comic forms for their own dramatic purposes. Some of those characteristics are examined in detail -- farce's exclusive concern with laughter and its lack, as a genre, of any more serious dramatic purpose; its spirit of festive liberation; its obscenity and its essential conservatism; its irregularity and improbability in plot structure; its dependence upon predictable co-incidence and other mechanical patterns of events; its use of stock, or 'type' characters and its association with masks; its exploitation of visual comedy and its relationship to the actor's art. Brief historical outlines are given of the chief period of farce in the European theatre, between the development of the Graeco-Roman stages and the close of the nineteenth century. These range from the crude and traditional folk-performances and the buffooneries of the fairground and the boulevarde to the sophisticated 'manners-farce', the vaudeville and the 'naturalistic' farces constructed in the style of the 'well-made play'. From the most popular and best-known pieces of these different periods a total of twenty-four plays is taken for detailed discussion. The analysis of each deals firstly with the broad structure of the plot, with the targets of the aggression in the play and with the pattern of resolution of the conflict. Secondly, it examines within that structure the use of recurring mechanical devices or motifs, such as those identified by Bergson, Hughes, Bentley and others: repetition, reversals, disguise and trickery, physical violence, mental and physical 'fixations' in the characters and so forth. Given this approach, which sets aside particular concern with wit and verbal comedy, some of the plays are studied in English translation after careful comparison with the original text. From these analyses it is apparent that the mechanical devices invest both the broad structure of the plot and the individual farce-scenes with a fundamental balance between the opposing forces in the farcical conflict. This balance is achieved in different ways for different structures depending upon the complexity of the conflict. In the plays in which a single rebellious impulse carries the conflict forward, the rigidity of the victim restores him a the resolution to his position of authority. In others, the aggressors suffer a specific reversal and the action is resolved in a draw between the two sides. In others, the victims directly earn their humiliation by their own repressive action and the aggressions are equally balanced from the outset. In still others, the mechanical devices are applied so minutely that they remind the audience at all times that aggressors victims alike are puppets reacting to interventions beyond their control. A pattern of co-incidence visible only to the audience may be invoked to overwhelm all the characters with a mutual humiliation. Farce proclaims its own characters; but when such a rule is allied to sympathetic and human characterization and to a serious social concern, the result may be that farcical techniques powerfully serve some other dramatic purpose.

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