Theatre of the Ridiculous: An Introduction

SPECIAL SECTION THEATRE CHARLES LUDLAM RONALD TAVEL AND WALTER EGO OF THE JOHN VACCARO KENNETH BERNARD RIDICULOUS An Introduction The "Ridiculous"spirit, a child of the sixties, is very much alive in the seventies:not only in the continuingpresentationsof the two companiesthat bearits name, but in the variedwork offellow travelersand disciples.It colorsnot onlyfamiliardramaticvoices, but emerging ones: Tom Eyen and Rochelle Owens as well as ChristopherDurangandAlbert Innaurato.Its indelible stamp appearsin the films of John Waters and others. Appropriately ,a style indebtedto popularculturehasinturn stronglyinfluenced thatculture:the androgyny, theatricalism,stylization, rebelliousness,mock sadism of much contemporary rock has roots in the Ridiculous. If, in the phraseofErikaMunk, Ridiculoustheatreis a "dinosaur of thesixties, "itis a brute that refuses to accept extinction. Some criticsdeprecatetheRidiculousrelianceon the most tastelessproducts of mass culture. They note that homage to this tastelessness is as essentialto Ridiculous style as satirictravesty. They challenge its avantgarde seriousness. And they are right, as the standard-bearersof the Ridiculous would be the first to admit. "Only when cheap depravity masqueradesassomethingholy andexalted,doIfindithideousanda bore, "Jeff Weiss has written.TheRidiculous "movement"didnotemerge asanaesthetic challenge, bristling with manifestoes and polemics. It grew out of a common sensibility which coalesced in New York City in the early to midsixties , a sensibility that sprangless from theatrethanfrom the otherarts: undergroundfilm, Happenings,experimentalmusic and, most of all,pop art with its iconographyof mass culture. This creativeenergy was filtered through the style which Susan Sontag has described in her "Notes on Camp."Playful irreverencewas itsaxiom. Meyerholdwas less an influence than MariaMontez. But beneath the surfacecamp and travesty there was seriousness. The Ridiculousrefractedagenuinevision of reality,one sharedby acommunity of artists and spectators. It recorded a world beyond absurdity, hence beyondthe TheatreoftheAbsurd.As Ron Tavelwroteinhisepigraphto The Life of Lady Godiva, "We have passedbeyond the absurd;ourposition is absolutely preposterous." Ridiculous theatre, reacting against both the naturalism that has dominated mainstream American theatrefor a half century and the metaphysicalabstractionof Absurdism and its heirs, respondedto images and imperativescloser to home: a worldon the brink of sanityandsurvival,of speedfreaks, dragqueens andwould-beSuperstars, a parochialworld which nonetheless spoke metaphoricallyto the perilous state of the human condition in the mid-twentieth century. 41 The catalyst of Ridiculous consciousness was Jack Smith. In his films Flaming Creatures and Normal Love and his early theatre "rituals,"he struck the primarynotes of Ridiculousstyle: travesty, homage to tackiness and celebration of "badtaste," sexual ambiguity, eroticism, "operatic" flamboyance. Upon thisfoundationRonaldTavelandJohn Vaccarocreated the Play-Houseof the Ridiculous. Tavel hadwritten Shower as a scenario for that impresarioof pop art, Andy Warhol, himself a contributorto Ridiculousstyle, particularlythroughhiscreationof "Superstars."Togetherwith anotherTavel script,The Life of Juanita Castro, Shower wasstaged by John Vaccaroin 1965 atthe Coda Gallery.Thefollowing yearTavel and Vaccarocollaboratedon The Life of Lady Codiva andthePlay-Houseof the Ridiculouswas officially born. The Tavel-Vaccaropartnershiplastedthrough1967 with theproduction of Kitchenette. The break came when Vaccarofound Tavel's King Kong travesty, Gorilla Queen, prolix and demanded major revision. Tavel refused andhad the play producedby theJudsonPoets' Theatre. His roleas playwright-in-residenceat the Play-House was over. With Tavel gone, Vaccaro turned to the scriptsof an actorwho hadjoined the company in Lady Godiva: CharlesLudlam. Vaccaro stagedtwo ofLudlam'splays-Big Hotel and Conquest of the Universe-but again the collaborationfoundered , with Ludlam leaving the Play-House to form his own group, the Ridiculous TheatricalCompany. He mounted a new production of Conquest of the Universe under the title When Queens Collide (there were rightsproblemsaboutthe title). Ludlamgatheredaroundhim aloyalcoreof actorswith whom he has continuedto workforthepastdecade,foratime in a permanenthome at the Evergreen Theatreon East 11th Street. As playwright and star performer, Ludlam functions as actor-managerin the grandRomantic tradition, the sun aroundwhich the satellitesof his company revolve. Unlike the work of Vaccaro, which is tuned to the strident rhythms ofcontemporaryanxiety, Ludlam'sversionoftheRidiculousechoes the more leisurelycadences of the past,drawingupon commedia dell'arte, OrientalandElizabethanclassicaldrama(Eunuchs of the Forbidden City, Caprice, Stage Blood), Romantic melodrama (Camille), Gothic thriller (Bluebeard), GrandOpera (Der Ring Gott Farblonjet)-as well as contemporary populargenres such as the gangsterfilm (Hot Ice) and the country-western musical (Corn). The Play-House of the Ridiculousunder Vaccaro has run a less charted course,forafew yearstaking up residenceabroadinAmsterdam. Formost of the seventies the Play-Househasfound a New York home atLa Mama, producinga variety ofplaysby, amongothers, Tom Murrin,JackieCurtis...