FMVIETNAM

Fabeeha Mohammad Theater 2100H __The Vietnamization of New Jersey__ What do you think about a teenager having sex with his older brother’s wife in the same room with his parents who hardly even care? Absurd right? That is an example of something that can happen in a farce comedy. A farce comedy is “a light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect” (http://www.answers.com/topic/farce). This example stated previously was in the play of __The Vietnamization of New Jersey__ by Christopher Durang. Durang utilizes these characteristics to produce satirical humor in the play. The __Vietnamization of New Jersey__ contains plenty of exaggerated characters and improbable situations. One example is the first example given above where Et, an adolescent, has sex with his older brother David’s wife Liat. They do this in the same room as Et’s parents. However, the parents Harry and Ozzie aren’t even complaining about it. There are random scenes where Et and Liat are making out including kissing in front of David who is blind. These things don’t really happen in reality. Parents would scold their children if they ever had a relationship with their sibling’s spouse. Plus it is atypical in the first place that a young high schooler would be having a sexual relationship with his older brother’s wife. Et is an extremely odd character because he acts so childlike even though he is a high schooler. He stuffs cereal flakes down his pants, sometimes eats them, and talks with his mouthful. That habit of stuffing cereal down his pants is a very bizarre habit. However Et sometimes sounds smart when he says things like “…points to the fact we and the American people are blind figuratively. We suffer, I think, a moral and physical blindness. It raises the question of which is the greater handicap- physical or moral blindess.” Et also asks Harry if Harry wants to get advice from Et about sex. Usually it’s the other way around if the father and son even talk about sex. Ozzie is also an interesting character. She seems somewhat childish when she says things to Hazel the maid like “go stick your head in the toilet.” Also, in the beginning of the play, she wants to win the game against her husband of who gets the most points which is counted by Hazel. She does not have much maturity. Liat is weird as well. She eats cereals from Et’s pants, and in one part of the play, she puts cereal in her eyes so that she could “see” it. That’s obviously a dull idea. And then David wants his parents to accept Liat as their daughter-in-law, so he wants to show them how it is like in Vietnam. Therefore, he gives a gun to Liat so she can shoot bullets blindly in the living room. The parents are crawling on the floor trying to avoid the bullets. Et holds his David’s head in a fish tank. David even gets shot in the arm. But this isn’t even a serious situation. It’s an example of a slapstick situation which is exaggerated violence usually to make things funny. Another example is when Ozzie slaps Et and Et slaps back. Normally, a son would not slap his mother unless they are an extremely mischievous child. When Harry decides to commit suicide because he lost his job and can’t pay his bills, Ozzie tells him not to because they are at dinner. What kind of an excuse is that? Ozzie does not try very hard to give her dead husband a good funeral. The fact that no one knew that Liat was not really Vietnamese showed that they were a little dim-witted. It may be a little more understandable for David because he was blind, but the others could have told that she wasn’t Vietnamese by the way she looked and that her accent changed. She sometimes switches to a Chinese accent. Harry’s brother Larry had an abnormal entrance. Larry drops from the sky with a silver parachute. That is just completely random. All these occurrences in the play showed how Durang exercised farce characteristics in the play. A good example of a farce comical movie is __Death at a Funeral__. It is a hilarious movie even though the title seems somber. The whole movie takes place at a funeral which is for the main character’s father. However, the wrong coffin with the wrong person was brought to the funeral. I highly doubt that that mistake could ever be made at an event as serious as this. It’s impractical. Also a midget turns up, and apparently he is the dead father’s gay lover. These incidents are to make the movie comical instead of sad. Additionally, __Stepbrothers__ also has farce characteristics. First of all, two stepbrothers, one 39 and one 40, still live with their parents. That’s not very common, especially in America. These two stepbrothers are literally trying to kill each other but they are still having fun with each other like making a bunk bed together. That would normally not happen in real life.