American Drama in the Era of Dramedy - Research Paper Example

The genre of dramedy is one that has evolved from the early day of theater. There are two basic kinds of dramedies – comedies that have an underlying dramatic element that is based upon the plot or events that occur in the plot; and dramas that have an underlying current of comedy that is based upon the characters or dialogue. For instance, the comedies that have an underlying dramatic element might be considered a comedy that is based upon a serious thing. Such as The Odd Couple, The Goodbye Girl and Lost In Yonkers are considered to be comedies, yet their core involves very serious themes of abandonment, mental illness, suicide and divorce. They are comedies, however, because of the light dialogue and funny characters that plays off the tragic situations in which the characters are embroiled, thus transforming the situation from dark to light. Dramas with an underlying current of comedy, on the other hand, also deal with serious matters and the serious matters are handled, by and large, in a serious way. The overall tone of the play is darker than comedies with dramatic elements. However, the characters provide funny dialogue that lighten up the mood of the play. One such play is The Gin Game, a play that is depressing and sad, yet, if one’s comic sensibilities are in tune with the main protagonist, it is also a bit of a farce at times. William Shakespeare was one of the early playwrights who blended the elements of light and dark in many of his plays. He had dramas that had comic elements, such as Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet - both of those dramas derived their comic elements from certain characters, such as the nurse in Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) and the “foolish prating knave” Polonius in Hamlet. (Shakespeare, Hamlet, p. 216). Although these plays would not be considered comedies they are, like The Gin Game, tragic dramas that have some light elements or comic relief. There are other plays by Shakespeare that defy definition of tragedy and comedy, as they have clear elements of both. One is All’s Well The Ends Well, a comedy that has elements of tragedy in the form of betrayal, desertion, loss and mourning. (Dunton-Downer and Riding, 2004, p. 159). Measure For Measure is another comedy that has the elements of tragedy, in that it ends with an ordered execution and enforced marriage. (Shakespeare, Measure for Measure). From the origins in the early plays of William Shakespeare, dramedy has evolved. In today’s dramedies, one of the elements that mark this genre is the subjectivity of the humor. In dramedies, the humor is often derived out of a tragic situation, as in the case of D.L. Coburn’s The Gin Game. Or the humor might be derived out of a series of harrowing events, such as The Out of Towners, a movie that was written by playwright Neil Simon. Whether the audience finds these movies to be dramedies or simply dramas depends upon if the particular humor that is found in the play or movie is identified as humor by the audience in a subjective way. If the individual’s sense of humor is derived from watching cantankerous old men being cantankerous old men, then The Gin Game might be considered very funny. If one’s sensibilities preclude finding such a situation funny, the play is merely depressing. If one finds a series of awful mishaps funny, then The Out of Towners is a rollicking funny movie. If one sees these incidents as harrowing, however, that movie will not be funny. It all depends on the individual perspective. For instance, The Gin Game concerns two elderly residents of a nursing home, Fonsia and Weller, who bond over shared games of gin. (The Gin Game). It is through the game of gin that the two characters show what lies beneath their exteriors. Weller comes across at the beginning as a cantankerous old man, who is cynical and bitter. He makes fun of the other nursing home residents for their disabilities. Every other word is a curse word, usually a curse word that involves taking the lord’s name in vain. However, he takes to Fonsia, mainly because she is willing to play gin with him. However, Fonsia wins every single game, and his reactions to her constant winning show that Weller is not simply cantankerous, but has a bottled rage. Fonsia, on the other hand, appears on the surface to be a sweet, little old lady. Her reactions to Weller are predictable for somebody with her demeanor. He curses at her, repeatedly, and she repeatedly stands up to him and refuses to play another game. She always ends up back at the gin table, however. She shows herself to be a lady of strength, yet there is something masochistic about the way that she repeatedly comes back to the sadistic dance in which Weller has engaged her. She knows how the game will end, yet she repeatedly plays it. Weller flips the table over, and beats the table with his cane over her winning. Yet she always comes back. The audience also learns information about the two characters along the way. The audience learns that Fonsia’s son lives in town, despite her lies that the son lived in Denver, which is why he never visits her. The audience also learns that the two are estranged – Weller tells her that is because of her controlling nature, and that the son never felt good enough. Fonsia does not dispute this, and one can tell by her reaction to this particular tirade that everything he is saying is true. Even though Weller might have shined a light as to why the son felt this way, however, it does not seem to faze Fonsia’s feelings towards the son. She hates the son for virtually disowning her, but really she disowned the son, because the son tried to find his own father. Fonsia is bitter towards the son’s father, and transferred this bitterness onto the son. Weller, on the other hand, has his own secrets. His business failed, and it is heavily implied that the business failure was his fault. As a result, he is broke. It turns out that Fonsia is also broke. The play ends on a bad note. The two have a particularly bad fight, and Weller storms out of the terrace, holding his left arm. Fonsia looks devastated, and it is implied that perhaps Weller is not well. By the way he is holding his left arm, it might be inferred that he had a heart attack. Upon viewing this play, there is really not much to laugh about. The two protagonists are lonely, bitter individuals who have made so many mistakes in their lives that there is nobody there to visit either of them, which is probably why they turn to one another, even as they turn on one another. They are like the baseball player Ty Cobb, whom Weller brings up by stating that only three of Cobb’s teammates attended his funeral. Much like Cobb, everyone in these two individual’s lives have abandoned them, and by observing the two individuals, one can imagine why. Fonsia has a controlling demeanor that is right below the surface, while Weller has a vicious temper that is prevalent in everyday life and bursts out of control when faced with loss after loss in gin. So, the majority of this play is dramatic. It deals with dramatic themes – getting old, being abandoned, being lonely, possible mental illness, physical illness (Fonsia is diabetic), poverty, etc. However, despite the fact that the film is overwhelmingly negative and depressing, like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, one may consider it a bit comedic as well. Most of the humor is provided by Weller. It is bitter humor, such as that which is directed towards the other nursing home residents, but humor nonetheless. To some people, Weller’s over-the-top reactions to Fonsia would strike as funny, such as when he turned over the table and beat the table with his cane. He is acerbic and sarcastic, which are also elements of humor. However, the character of Fonsia does not provide any humor. In all, The Gin Game would come across as being a dramedy only if one shares the same sense of humor as Weller, for he is the only character that can be considered to be in the least comedic. Indeed, he and Fonsia are the only two characters in the play, and, since Fonsia does not appear to have a sense of humor, the audience must identify with Weller to extract humor from this play. While Weller did not appeal to me on a comedic level, but, rather, I was unable to get past his bitterness, hurt and rage to see him as comic, there are clearly others who did find him to be funny Similarly, the movie The Out of Towners works in the same way. (The Out of Towners). While I found this tale of two people from Ohio, and their endless run of bad luck in New York City, to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen in my life, there are others, such as the critic Leonard Maltin, who found that this movie to be “more harrowing than funny.” (Maltin, 2010, p. 1041). This movie derives its humor by depicting a couple whose flight is delayed and luggage is lost; who lose their hotel room because they did not “wire or call”; who go looking for another hotel room, only to trust a man named Murray who robs them at gunpoint; who end up sleeping in the park, where a man in a cape comes in the night and takes George’s watch; who end up a part of a police chase, because they refuse to get out of a police escort car when the police have to give chase; and who end up in the car of a Cuban diplomat when a riot breaks out, and the car is pelted with eggs and people are attacking the car. George also ends up being accused of molesting a young boy, because his hands are in the boys pockets as he tries to get money off the boy; loses his hearing when a manhole cover explodes right behind him; and breaks a tooth on a prize in a Cracker Jack Box. Like The Gin Game, the humor in this movie is subjective. One either finds humor in the couple’s endless travails, in which case the movie is a rollicking good time. However, if one does not find humor in the travails, but, rather, finds them simply “harrowing”, then the movie’s humor will entirely miss the mark. Perhaps a person who actually experienced one or more of these actions – being robbed, losing their hearing, being unfairly accused of molestation, etc., would be in the camp that would find the movie simply harrowing. To me, not having experienced anything like what these characters went through, the movie was simply laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end. While these two dramedies derives their humor in a subjective way, others are much less subjective. In other words, the humor is more universal, yet the underlying plot of the movie is filled with pathos, such as with Measure for Measure and All’s Well That Ends Well. Neil Simon was a master at this kind of dramedy. For instance, Lost In Yonkers has a deadly serious plot – a controlling, abusive woman who terrorized her children becomes a caretaker for her grandchildren. Yet, the dialogue is funny and the characters in the play make light of their upbringing just enough that their situations are leavened. A good example of this is the character of Louie, who is one of Grandma’s sons, as he describes his mother’s stare – “She could tell if there was salt missing from a pretzel…But she wouldn’t say nothing…she’d just stare at you…her eyes looked like two district attorneys…I’d stare her right back until her eyelids started to weigh ten pounds each.” (Simon, 1991, p. 55). In fact, the character of Louie has many lines like this one, such as when he states that he got locked in a closet for breaking plates, and Arty, the grandson, asks if it would just be easier to have paper plates. (Simon, 1991, pp. 74-75). Lost in Yonkers derives its humor by leavening a situation that would ordinarily be harrowing, just like with The Out of Towners. It is better to laugh at such situations than cry about them, and it provides the audience with a way to view such dysfunctional situations in a new light. Other comedies that accomplish this by Simon are The Odd Couple and The Goodbye Girl, both plays on Broadway that were made into movies. The Odd Couple takes a suicidal neurotic who has just been dumped by his wife, pairs him with his direct opposite, and the humor is derived from this situation. At the same time, the humor illuminates certain universal truths. Such as when one of the guys who plays poker with the protagonist, Vinnie, can’t believe that Felix and his wife, Frances, are splitting up, because “they were such a happy couple.” To which Murray, another of the poker buddies states “twelve years doesn’t mean you’re a happy couple. It just means you’re a long couple.” (Simon, 1986, p. 229). Oscar is a bit like the cantankerous Weller in The Gin Game, in that his humor is derived from bitterness and cynicism, yet Oscar’s humor is more broadly funny and universal than Weller. While I did not get Weller’s humor, I got Oscar’s, and most people would. He has a gruff, no-nonsense way of summing things up, and much of the plays humor derives from this – such as when he described Felix “you know what he’s like. He sleeps on the window sill. ‘Love me or I’ll jump.’ ‘Cause he’s a nut, that’s why.” (Simon, 1986, p. 230). And “what he’d really like is to go to the funeral and sit in the back. He’d be the biggest crier there.” (Simon, 1986, p. 231). The humor is also derived from Felix, at his expense. For instance, Felix sent a suicide telegram. (Simon, 1986, p. 230). However, the character of Felix is, himself, not all that funny, in that he does not have funny dialogue, as Oscar does. The humor regarding Felix is in his neuroticism, his foibles, his hypochondria and the like. Mainly, Felix provides humor by being a foil for Oscar. Some of the funniest dialogue is simply Oscar’s observations of Felix, as indicated above. Beneath all the humor – the witty one-liners from Oscar, the hysterical foibles of Felix – lies the truth - that these are two broken men. For Felix, this is plain – his pathos is on full-view throughout the play. He beats himself up about ruining his marriage, and cries to two women about losing his wife, Frances. (Simon, 1986, p. 246, 280). With Oscar, it is much less obvious, but there is some clue towards the end, when Oscar describes himself as “dejected, despondent and disgusted.” (Simon, 1986, p. 290). Oscar disguises his hurt and pain with a gruff exterior and sarcasm, where Felix lays his bare, but, nevertheless, both men are broken, which is what makes this play tragic and comedic all at the same time. The Goodbye Girl also deals with a serious subject of abandonment. (The Goodbye Girl). Like The Odd Couple, the humor is derived from the differences between the protagonists, Elliott and Paula. Paula is uptight, like Felix, while Elliott is more laid-back like Oscar, but has stranger habits than Oscar, such as his meditating all-night guitar playing. However, like Oscar, Paula is hiding a deep hurt and her sarcasm is her shield. Elliott is more free-spirited, and does not have a deep wound that is apparent; therefore he is better able to fall in love than Paula. Of course, in the end, Paula takes down her wall and allows herself to fall in love with Elliott, and the two get a happy ending. These are just some of the plays by Neil Simon. At their core, there are very serious issues – abuse, abandonment, suicidal tendencies, neuroticism, mental illness, just to name a few. The characters are, by and large, wounded, yet the humor is derived from their wounds. The humor is derived by the way the characters use their sense of humor as a shield, a defense mechanism, a way to get through the harsh world without breaking down. They basically need to laugh, lest they cry. At the same time, the audience can identify with the characters, because who has not experienced loss and pain? Yet, by transforming the loss and pain into humor, the audience can experience a kind of vicarious catharsis for their own pain, a way to laugh at what they, themselves, have gone through. This is why Neil Simon is one of America’s most successful playwrights. Today, a lot of the dramedy is occurring in television shows such as Brothers and Sisters and Desperate Housewives. Brothers and Sisters is a kind of nighttime soap opera, in the tradition of the nighttime soaps of old, such as Dallas and Dynasty, but with a light touch. What makes it a soap opera is that the storylines are continuing, and they usually involve conflict between the siblings and the siblings’ significant others. The show deals with many dramatic situations - such a losing a business, long-time infidelities, a miscarriage, cancer, divorce, etc. These situations are what provide the dramatic core. What makes it more of a comedy is the dialogue between the siblings and the matriarch, Nora Walker. There are many long-running jokes that have been presented throughout the season, such as the joke about the siblings all talking on the phone at once. Also, each character has a kind of neuroticism that is unique to that particular character, and the show derives much of its humor from each individual character’s foibles. Sara is proud but insecure; Kitty is overly opinionated; Kevin has low self-esteem; Tommy is arrogant; Justin is immature. Each of their weaknesses provides humor for the show, because the siblings’ interactions are reflective of each individual weakness yet dependent on them as well. By blending the weaknesses, the siblings play off each other and sparks fly. This is where the bulk of the humor lies. Likewise, Desperate Housewives relies upon each characters’ weakness for its humor. Like Brother and Sisters, the plot points on Desperate Housewives are often deadly serious. There is not much these ladies have not dealt with – infidelity, suicide, death of a spouse, paralysis of a spouse, miscarriage, threats of poverty, cancer, overwhelming debt, etc. However, each plot point is transformed from serious to comical largely because of the broad flaws of the ladies. Each one has an exaggerated fault upon which much of the comedy is derived. Bree is uptight and controlling; Lynette is also controlling, a workaholic, and emasculating to her husband; Susan is neurotic and clumsy; Gabrielle is vain, self-centered and spoiled; Edie was a slut. The dialogue, plots and humor revolve around these flaws, and these flaws become the main part of the show. The flaws are often the cause of the drama that unfolds with the ladies. For instance, Bree’s cold, controlling exterior will not allow her to show imperfections to the world. Therefore, when her daughter gets pregnant, Bree pretends that she, herself, is pregnant so that she can claim the infant as her own after the birth. This, of course, leads to all kinds of consequences for Bree down the line. However, at the center of it all is a warm core. The ladies genuinely love and care for one another, and each would lay down her life for any of the other ladies. They have a tight bond, and this is what keeps the show together. The flaws provide the humor, while the bond provides the heart. Conclusion Dramedy is a particular genre that works to provide humor from tragic or harrowing situations. The humor is derived from characters and dialogue that bring light into very dark situations, thus enabling the audience to have a vicarious catharsis for its own experience that parallels the elements of the plot. These plays deal with tragic themes, such as abandonment, death, mental illness, etc. in such a way that these events do not seem tragic, but, rather, comic, thus transcending the tragic elements. These elements are present in many of our greatest comedies. Perhaps these tragic elements are the core of why certain comedies are great. Sources Used Dunton, Downer, L. and Riding, A., The Essential Shakespeare Handbook, New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2004. Shakespeare, W., Romeo and Juliet, London: Cricket House Books. Shakespeare, W., Hamlet, edited by Mowat, B. and Werstine, P., New York, NY: Washington Square Press. Shakespeare, W., Measure for Measure, edited by Mowat, B. and Werstine, P, New York, NY: Washington Square Press. Simon, N., Lost in Yonkers, New York, NY: Plume, 1993. Simon, N. “The Odd Couple”, The Collected Works of Neil Simon. New York, NY: Plume, 1993, pp. 215-303. The Gin Game, Dir. Arvin Brown, Perf. Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. Image Entertainment, 2003. The Goodbye Girl, Dir. Herbert Ross, Perf. Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason and Quinn Cummings. Turner Entertainment Co., 1977. The Out of Towners, Dir. Arthur Hiller, Perf. Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. Paramount Picture, 1970. Read More