Although Jean Genet had been writing since his early days in prison, aligning his literary identity with his fictional and autobiographical novels, he received more critical acclaim after being released from prison permanently which greatly influenced his personal and literary maturity. After evading a life sentence in prison, Genet exited with a newfound wealth thanks to his successful novels and so as he was evolving personally, his literary ability did so as well (Barber, 52). In 1947, turning from writing novels to dramas, Genet was able to more outwardly and vividly express his symbolism (Coe, 213). He began with Haute Surveillance [Deathwatch], where he depicted three criminals who all share the same prison cell (Thody, 150). In this play, Genet began to show his aversion towards realism by having the stage directions present the play as if it unfolds in a dream (Thody, 156). Directed by Jean Marchat, the play was first presented at the Théâtre des Mathurins in Paris in February 1949 to an audience expecting the conventional realism often presented on stage and thus taken back by Genet’s new, dreamlike style of theater (Knapp, 96). As a result, the audience took the confusing ambiguity between reality and dream coldly and struggled to pick up on Genet’s social commentary: that life must be lived courageously and creatively and the useless characteristics of an individual within a society must be erased (Knapp, 106). Even though his first play was received poorly by early audiences, Genet’s following plays more boldly embodied symbolism and absurdism, the two principal features of the then contemporary dramatic movement.
Les Bonnes [The Maids], produced by Louis Jouvet in 1947 and premiering at the Théâtre de l’Athénée, presented itself as a traditional tragedy audiences with which would be familiar; while classical tragedies depicted characters who change and grow over the course of the play however, The Maids presents its three characters as figures steadily striped down of their layers (Knapp, 107). Inspired by the infamous sisters, Christine and Léa Papin, who murdered their mistress, Madame Lancelin and her daughter, at Le Mans, France, in 1933, Genet, much like in Deathwatch, includes his personal thoughts and obsessions (Thody, 164-166). The play follows two maids, sisters who impersonate their Madame and her relationship with her lover, but out of pure hatred, the maids plot to kill her and, in a failed and successful rebellion, one sister kills the other (Knapp, 108). In the play, Genet touches about society and its values that once condemned him in illustrating the power dynamic upper and lower class characters. As these maids are victims of oppression and women who lacked the equal and just treatment in society, he plays with morality as hatred and contempt steadily consume them. Additionally, Genet’s personal beliefs more prominently take shape in the play when the maids dream of becoming famous criminals (Knapp, 109). Throughout the play, morality is bent to a point where there is no absolute good and evil, thus forming a ambiguous contrast between illusions and dreams (Knapp, 109). Originally, Genet wanted the maids to be played by men in order to carry the paradox even farther, but Jouvet stopped him for the confusion between reality and illusion would have been too strong for audiences (Knapp, 109). In The Maids, Genet created characters that embody illusions and dreamlike imagery, but in his following play, Genet goes a step further by illustrating characters who reject reality in favor of a world of illusion.
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Unlike his previous two plays which had premiered in France, Le Balcon [The Balcony] opened on April 22nd.1957 in London at the Arts Theatre Club, directed by Peter Zadek (Knapp, 116). Delving into the realm of the absurd, Genet advised that the actors perform in an exaggerated manner as if to keep audience members unsure of whether the events taking place on stage and the sentiments of the characters were real or fake (Knapp, 116). The Balcony, consisting of nine tableaux and a large cast of twenty actors, centers around the Madame of a brothel and Genets uses this place not only to comment on social power, but also to elaborate on the theme of illusions (Thody, 180). Genet presents characters of power institutions such as a bishop, a general and a judge, coming to the brothel in order to exude their power over the women working there. While Genet presents the brothel as a distinct establishment in which people use sex to actualize their dreams of power, it also serves as a driving force for images, reflections, and illusions (Thody, 180). Stemming from the old slang term for a brothel, une maison d’illusions [a house of illusions], The Balcony makes the sex-workers visible in an intriguing way; within the brother, they become actors putting on a show for the clients who arrive rather than debase themselves in society’s eyes (Nagpal, 36). This world of illusion frees their socially designated role as prostitutes and instead allows them to forget their lowly and exploitative state in society. Additionally, Genet juxtaposes illusion and reality once again as the visitors of the brothel know that this world is deceptive and false, but their constant return begins to push them to contemplate whether life inside the brother is any less fake than life inside it (Knapp, 125). Stressing the absurd philosophy, Genet continues to toy with the theme of illusion and reality, which he will dramatize once again in a more complex manner in his following play.
Les Nègres [The Blacks], performed in Paris on October 28th 1959 at Théâtre de Lutèce, was directed by Roger Blin and performed by an all-black acting troupe, Les Griots (Knapp, 129). The play opened to great approval from Genet, unlike many of the previously directed productions of his work, and is a staple piece in the Theatre of the Absurd. Additionally, the play marked Genet’s sympathy for the oppressed races and, now more politically emboldened, began to challenge failures or shortcomings of the society in which he lived. Following a play within a play structure, The Blacks makes audience members spectators of the reenactment of a murder of a white woman, supposedly killed by a black man and the supposed murderer is tried by an all white court (blacks wearing white masks) (Knapp, 129). Dubbed a clownerie or a clown show for its exaggerated usage of racial stereotypes and irony, The Blacks offered an extremely visual experience, more so than Genet’s past plays, largely in part due to its centralization on race (Thody, 197). Understanding the experience being an outsider and being despised outsider in society (he was a bastard, homosexual, and criminal), Genet illustrated how blacks were oppressed and exploited in society at the time. Once again following the philosophy of absurd, Genet asks the question “but what is a black? First of all, what’s his colour?” (qtd. in Thody, 203). Genet uses the white masks, worn by the black actors in the White Court, not only to alter the perception of the white race on stage, but also to establish a distinct contrast between real society and world of illusion he depicts on stage. Once again Genet plays with the theme of illusion by showing how black people living in a white country identify themselves by their race but in actually, race is an illusion; in the end of the play, Genet reverses societal race stereotypes regarding blacks and whites as black becomes the dominant color and comes to represent goodness and purity (Knapp, 135). The interplay between illusion and reality was a staple of Genet’s drama and The Blacks was no exception.