The contemporary grotesque in Matéi Vișniec’s theater

Abstract

The laughter, according to Bergson, speaks to the intelligence. For being a purely human phenomenon, for the laughter to happen, there must be a perception of the comic effect and its comprehension. Sometimes what is unusual also causes the laughter, although it is due to the strangeness effect it produces, and it also takes, many times, to reflection, as the manifestations of the grotesque, present in different media and artistic expressions. In the works of the contemporary playwright Matéi Vișniec, which have a strong political character, the grotesque is often the source of the laughter provoked by his work, but also what guides the reader/spectator to the understanding of the problem raised by the author. Being the playwright a self-stated adept of the Theater of the Absurd, he frequently recurs to uncommon conclusions, in which the grotesque outstands, giving the tone of the plays. It is possible to find different expressions of the grotesque in his writings, as in the text Decomposed theatre or the human trashcan (1994/2012). This article, based in the propositions of Cabral and Soares (2002), Kayser (1986), among other theorists that categorize and recover the senses of the grotesque, searches the comprehension of the images of the grotesque in the dramatic work of the Romanian author and the effects of meaning from the employment of the aesthetical category here mentioned, through the reflection provided by it. In Decomposed theatre, the grotesque, under different forms, reveals as a guide for the construction of the images and allegories present in the text and also for possible meanings that might emerge from the play.