All Topics  
Farce

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Farce
 
 
  Topics Farce Topic Home

A farce is a comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
 written for the stage or film which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour
Humour

Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves....
 of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include sexual innuendo
Innuendo

An innuendo is, according to the Advanced Oxford Learner's Dictionary an indirect remark about somebody or something, usually suggesting something bad or rude; the use of remarks like this: "innuendoes about her private life" or "The song is full of sexual innuendo." ...
 and word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases, culminating in an ending which often involves an elaborate chase scene.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Farce'
Start a new discussion about 'Farce'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A farce is a comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
 written for the stage or film which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour
Humour

Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves....
 of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include sexual innuendo
Innuendo

An innuendo is, according to the Advanced Oxford Learner's Dictionary an indirect remark about somebody or something, usually suggesting something bad or rude; the use of remarks like this: "innuendoes about her private life" or "The song is full of sexual innuendo." ...
 and word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases, culminating in an ending which often involves an elaborate chase scene. Farce is also characterized by physical humour, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances.

Many farces move at a frantic pace toward the climax, in which the initial problem is resolved one way or another, often through a deus ex machina
Deus ex machina

A deus ex machina is a plot device in which a surprising or unexpected event occurs in a story's plot, often to resolve flaws or tie up loose ends in the narrative....
 twist of the plot. Generally, there is a happy ending. The convention of poetic justice
Poetic justice

Poetic justice is a Literary technique in which virtue is ultimately rewarded or vice punishment, often in modern literature by an irony twist of fate intimately related to the character's own conduct....
 is not always observed: The protagonist may get away with what he or she has been trying to hide at all costs, even if it is a criminal act involving crazy costumes.

Farce in general is highly tolerant of transgressive behavior, and tends to depict human beings as vain, irrational, venal, infantile, and prone to automatic behavior
Automatic behavior

Automatic behavior, from the Greek automatos or self-acting, is the spontaneous production of often purposeless verbal or motor behavior without conscious self-control or self-censorship....
. In that respect, farce is a natural companion of satire
Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
. Farce is, in fact, not merely a genre but a highly flexible dramatic mode that often occurs in combination with other forms, including romantic comedy. Farce is considered a theatre tradition.

As far as ridiculous, far-fetched situations, quick and witty repartee, and broad physical humor are concerned, farce is widely employed in TV sitcoms, in silent film comedy, and in screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy

Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums....
. See also bedroom farce
Bedroom farce

A bedroom farce or sex farce is a type of light comedy, centered on the sexual pairings and recombinations of characters as they move through improbable plots and slamming doors....
.

Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 has a centuries-old tradition of farce plays called Kyogen
Kyogen

is a form of traditional Japanese theater. It developed alongside noh, was performed along with noh as an intermission of sorts between noh acts, and retains close links to noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated noh-kyogen....
. These plays are performed as comic relief during the long, serious Noh
Noh

, or is a major form of classic Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Together with the closely-related Kyogen farce, it evolved from various popular, folk and aristocratic art forms, including Dengaku, Shirabyoshi, and Gagaku....
 plays.

Representative examples: A chronology


Britain

  • Anonymus
    Anonymus

    Anonymus is the Latin word for anonymity, the correct English spelling. The Latin spelling, however, is traditionally used by scholars in the humanities to refer to an ancient writer whose name is not known, or to a manuscript of their work....
    : The Second Shepherds' Play
    The Second Shepherds' Play

    The Second Shepherds' Play is a famous medieval mystery play which is contained in the manuscript HM1, the unique manuscript of the Wakefield Cycle....
     (14th century)
  • Christopher Marlowe
    Christopher Marlowe

    Christopher "Kit" Marlowe was an Kingdom of England Playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost English Renaissance theatre tragedy next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own mysterious and untimely death....
    : The Jew of Malta
    The Jew of Malta

    The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably written in 1589 or 1590.The title character, Barabas, is a complex character likely to provoke mixed reactions in an audience....
     (ca. 1589)
  • William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
    : The Comedy of Errors
    The Comedy of Errors

    The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1594. It is his shortest and one of his most farce, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and wordplay....
     (ca.1592)
  • Aphra Behn
    Aphra Behn

    Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English people professional female writers. Her writing participated in the amatory fiction genre of British literature....
    : The Rover (play)
    The Rover (play)

    The Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers is a play in two parts written by the England author Aphra Behn. It was a very popular Restoration comedy....
     (1677)
  • Arthur Wing Pinero
    Arthur Wing Pinero

    Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director....
    : The Magistrate (1885)
  • Brandon Thomas
    Brandon Thomas

    Walter Brandon Thomas was an English people actor, playwright and song writer. He is best known for writing the comic play Charley's Aunt , which broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
    : Charley's Aunt
    Charley's Aunt

    Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
     (1892)
  • Oscar Wilde
    Oscar Wilde

    Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish people playwright, Irish poetry and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest Celebrity of his day....
    : The Importance of Being Earnest
    The Importance of Being Earnest

    The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde. It premiered on 14 February 1895 at the St. James's Theatre in London.Set in England during the late Victorian era, the play's humour derives in part from characters maintaining pseudonym to escape unwelcome social obligations....
     (1895)
  • Ben Travers
    Ben Travers

    Ben Travers Order of the British Empire was a British playwright most famous for his farces.Born in the London borough of Hendon, Travers was educated at Charterhouse , followed by a brief spell in business....
    : Thark
    Thark

    Thark may refer to* A tribe of creatures on the fictional planet of Barsoom, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs for the 1917 novel A Princess of Mars....
     (1927)
  • Noel Coward
    Noël Coward

    Sir No?l Peirce Coward was an English people playwright, composer, Theatre director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise"....
    : Hay Fever
    Hay Fever

    Hay Fever is a comic play written by No?l Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Best described as a cross between high farce and a comedy of manners, the play is set in an English country house in the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish b...
     (1925); Present Laughter
    Present Laughter

    Present Laughter is a comedy play written by No?l Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed....
     (1939)Blithe Spirit
    Blithe Spirit

    Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noel Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who is haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, following a s?ance held by the eccentric Mediumship and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati....
     (1941)
  • Philip King
    Philip King (playwright)

    Philip King, a British playwright and actor, was born in Yorkshire in 1904. He is best known as the author of the farce See How They Run . He lived in Brighton and many of his plays were first produced in nearby Worthing....
    : See How They Run
    See How They Run

    See How They Run is a classic English comedy by Philip King . Its title is a line from the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice. It is considered a farce for its tense comic situations and headlong humour, heavily playing on mistaken identity, doors, and vicars....
     (1945) Big Bad Mouse
    Big Bad Mouse

    Big Bad Mouse is a frequently revived 1960s United Kingdom stage play and theatrical farce that, although not specifically written for them, became famous as a loose vehicle for the many talents of the British comedy actors Jimmy Edwards and Eric Sykes and has constantly seen various revivals with other stars right up to 2008....
     (1957)
  • Joe Orton
    Joe Orton

    Joe Orton , born John Kingsley Orton, was an England playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedy....
    : Loot
    Loot (play)

    Loot is a play by Joe Orton. The play is an extremely Black comedy farce which satirises the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force....
     (1967) What the Butler Saw
    What the Butler Saw (play)

    What the Butler Saw is a comedy farce written by English playwright Joe Orton, first staged at the Queen's Theatre in London on 5 March 1969....
     (1969)
  • Michael Pertwee
    Michael Pertwee

    Michael Pertwee was a United Kingdom playwright and screenwriter. Among his credits were episodes of The Saint , Danger Man, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, B-And-B and many other films and TV series....
    : Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!
    Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!

    Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! is a 1973 United Kingdom film based on the popular "Whitehall Farce" written by Michael Pertwee, who also wrote the screenplay....
     (1971)
  • Anthony Marriott & Alistair Foot: No Sex Please, We're British
    No Sex Please, We're British

    No Sex Please, We're British is a United Kingdom comedy play written by Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott and first staged in West End of London in 1971....
     (1975)
  • John Cleese
    John Cleese

    'John Marwood Cleese' is an Academy Award-nominated English actor, comedian, writer, film producer and singer, who is known as being a member of Monty Python, a group of comedians responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and for all of the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty...
    : Fawlty Towers
    Fawlty Towers

    Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by the BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC Two in 1975. Although only twelve episodes were produced , the programme has had a lasting and powerful legacy....
     (1975)
  • John Chapman
    John Chapman

    John Chapman may refer to:*Johnny Appleseed, born "John Chapman," pioneer nurseryman, and missionary*John Chapman , Australian Senator*John Chapman , Australian evangelist...
     & Anthony Marriott: Shut Your Eyes and Think of England (1977)
  • Derek Benfield
    Derek Benfield

    Derek Benfield is a United Kingdom playwright and actor.He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. He is the author of Running Riot and the second actor who played Patricia Routledge's character's husband in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates ....
    : Touch and Go (1982)
  • Michael Frayn
    Michael Frayn

    Michael Frayn is an England playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy ....
    : Noises Off
    Noises Off

    Noises Off is a 1982 Play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of The Two of Us , a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave....
     (1982)
  • Nigel Williams
    Nigel Williams (author)

    Nigel Williams is a British novelist, screenwriter and playwright.He was educated at Highgate School and Oriel College, Oxford, Oxford, is married with three sons and lives in Putney, south-west London....
    : W.C.P.C. (1982)
  • Miles Tredinnick
    Miles Tredinnick

    Miles Tredinnick is a writer and lead singer with the British rock band London ....
    : Laugh? I Nearly Went To Miami!
    Laugh? I Nearly Went To Miami!

    'Laugh? I Nearly Went to Miami!' is a stage comedy by Miles Tredinnick. It was first produced in Hampstead, London, in 1985 and published the following year by Samuel French Ltd.....
     (1986)
  • Alan Ayckbourn
    Alan Ayckbourn

    Sir Alan Ayckbourn Order of the British Empire is a popular and prolific English playwright....
    : A Small Family Business (1987)
  • Miles Tredinnick
    Miles Tredinnick

    Miles Tredinnick is a writer and lead singer with the British rock band London ....
    : It’s Now Or Never! (1991)
  • Tom Kempinski: Sex Please, We're Italian! (1991)
  • Ray Cooney
    Ray Cooney

    Raymond George Alfred Cooney, Order of the British Empire is an English playwright and actor. His biggest success, Run For Your Wife, lasted nine years in London's West End theatre and is its longest-running comedy....
    : Funny Money
    Funny Money

    Funny Money is a farce written by Ray Cooney. It premi?red at The Churchill Theatre, London Borough of Bromley, London, England, in 1994, followed by a successful two-year run in the West End theatre....
     (1994)
  • Steven Moffat
    Steven Moffat

    Steven Moffat is a Scottish people television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his relationship with television pr...
    : Coupling (2001)


France

  • The Boy and the Blind Man, 13th century, oldest written French farce.
  • Molière
    Molière

    Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known by his stage name Moli?re, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature....
    : Tartuffe
    Tartuffe

    Tartuffe is a comedy by Moli?re, and arguably his most famous play. It was written and first performed in 1664 at the f?tes held at Versailles, and almost immediately censorship by the outcry of the D?vots , who were very influential in the court of King Louis XIV....
     (1664)
  • Labiche: La Cagnotte (1864)and other plays.
  • Georges Feydeau
    Georges Feydeau

    Georges Feydeau, was a France playwright of the era known as the Belle ?poque. He was especially known for his many lively farces....
    : Le Dindon (1896) (aka Sauce for the Goose)
  • Octave Mirbeau
    Octave Mirbeau

    Octave Mirbeau was a French journalist, art critic, pamphleteer, novelist, and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, while still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde....
     : (1904).
  • Georges Feydeau
    Georges Feydeau

    Georges Feydeau, was a France playwright of the era known as the Belle ?poque. He was especially known for his many lively farces....
    : A Flea in Her Ear
    A Flea in Her Ear

    A Flea in Her Ear is a 1907 play by Georges Feydeau written at the height of the Belle ?poque....
     (1907)
  • Marc Camoletti: Boeing Boeing
    Boeing Boeing (play)

    Boeing-Boeing is a classic farce written by French playwright Marc Camoletti . The English language adaptation, translated by Beverley Cross, was staged in London at the Apollo Theatre in 1962 and transferred to the Duchess Theatre in 1965, running for a total of seven years....
     (1960) and Pyjama pour Six (1985) (aka Don't Dress for Dinner
    Don't Dress for Dinner

    Don't Dress for Dinner is a two-act play by France playwright Marc Camoletti . It's a sequel to Camoletti's other play Boeing Boeing . The play ran in Paris for a little more than two years under the name Pyjamas Pour Six, and also ran in London starring Simon Cadell and Su Pollard....
    )
  • Jean Poiret
    Jean Poiret

    Jean Poiret, born Jean Poir?, was a French actor, director, and screenwriter. He is primarily known as the author of the original play La Cage aux Folles ....
    : La Cage aux Folles
    La Cage aux Folles (play)

    La Cage aux Folles is a 1973 French farce play by Jean Poiret. It was later adapted into a La Cage aux Folles and two feature films, La Cage aux Folles and The Birdcage....
     (1973)


Germany

  • Carl Laufs & Wilhelm Jacoby: Pension Schöller (1890)
  • Franz Arnold & Ernst Bach: Weekend im Paradies (1928)
  • Miles Tredinnick
    Miles Tredinnick

    Miles Tredinnick is a writer and lead singer with the British rock band London ....
     with Ursula Lyn and Adolf Opel: ...Und Morgen Fliegen Wir Nach Miami (1987)


Italy

  • Dario Fo
    Dario Fo

    Dario Fo is an Italy Satire, playwright, theater director, actor, and composer. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 and in 2007 he was ranked Joint Seventh with Stephen Hawking in The The Daily Telegraph's list of 100 greatest living geniuses....
    : Morte accidentale di un anarchico also known as Accidental Death of an Anarchist
    Accidental Death of an Anarchist

    Accidental Death of an Anarchist is perhaps the best-known Play by the Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo....
     was first played on December 5, 1970 in Varese, Italy


Russia

  • Nikolai Gogol
    Nikolai Gogol

    Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainians-born Russian people writer. Although his early works, such as Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, were heavily influenced by his Ukraine upbringing and identity, he wrote in Russian and his works belong to the tradition of Russian literature; often called the "father of modern Russian realism" he...
     The Government Inspector (also translated as The Inspector General)
  • Anton Chekhov
    Anton Chekhov

    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian Short story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in world literature....
     A Marriage Proposal
    A Marriage Proposal

    A Marriage Proposal is a one-act Play by Anton Chekhov, written in 1888-1889.Although best known for his longer, more serious plays, Chekhov also wrote a number of short farces, which include the one-act A Marriage Proposal....


United States

  • Good Neighbor Sam
    Good Neighbor Sam

    Good Neighbor Sam is a 1964 in film farce motion picture screenwriter and movie director by David Swift and starring Jack Lemmon. It was based on the novel by Jack Finney....
    , starring Jack Lemmon
    Jack Lemmon

    'John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III' was an United States actor known principally for his comedic roles. He starred in over 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses , Irma La Douce, The Odd Couple , The Out-of-Towners , Glengarry Glen Ross , The China Syndrome and JFK ....


External links

  • films at Allmovie