LBVietnam

Farce comedy is a popular dramatic strategy because of its great ability to entertain an audience. It achieves this success by employing a set of unique comedic elements that have become directly linked with the concept of farce. These elements include extravagant or improbable situations, cases of mistaken identity, clever word play, extensive physical humor, and a fast-paced plot that usually involves a chase scene at some point. Farce is characterized by an overall sense of absurdity, and the performances often extremely stylized to enhance this feeling.

Most, if not all, of these elements are present in Christopher Durang's __The Vietnamization of New Jersey__, which most certainly can be called a farce comedy piece. The play is full of improbabilities, most namely the funny coincidences of Davey coming home right as the family is discussing when it might happen, Davey and Liat actually falling into the septic tank after Ozzie angrily wishes it upon them, and Liat's real name actually being Maureen O'Hara, which Ozzie calls her while in denial of Liat's ethnicity. It is this last instance where we find our farcical case of mistaken identity, as Liat pretends to be Vietnamese, so that the guilt-stricken, blind Davey will marry her and take her back to America. In reality, she is a girl from Schenectady who got trapped in Vietnam on vacation with her family. There is also a good bit of word play in the piece, mostly in the form of sexual innuendo. Durang plays with the stereotypical Asian accent, as Liat repeatedly says she wants "free erections" when she means "free elections," and on what Ozzie thinks is Thanksgiving, when she talks about "trying to feel grateful," Hazel responds with "Et's feeling Liat," as Et and Liat make out behind the couch. Physical humor is present as well. Et puts cereal and other objects down his pants, Harry and Ozzie play an idiotic game of charades with Et, Hazel stamps her foot to guide the blind Davey, and Liat rides Ozzie like a horse on a rice-covered floor to illustrate the horrors of Vietnam. The play's plot is pretty fast-paced, as the scenes are mainly back-and-forth dialogue and we see several years go by quite quickly, and there is a modified chase scene towards the end, when Larry basically hunts Davey.

Overall, __The Vietnamization of New Jersey__ maintains an air of absurdity created by the stylized idiosyncrasies of the main characters. We get the feeling that this family is supposed to represent the average middle class American family, suggested by all the references to commercial goods, but really they are far from our idea of typical and land more on the side of completely dysfunctional. Harry, the head of the household, is a weak and cowardly man who cannot discipline his son and hides in the library instead of going to work. Ozzie, the mother figure, seems to miss the point of anything, caring more about people using more polite euphemisms than what people are actually talking about. Davey and Et are far from the idea of the All-American boy, as Davey is ashamed to be an American and Et is a horny, foul-mouthed little guy who has random moments of insightful dialogue. Hazel, a mere housekeeper, actually seems to be the one with the most sense, and she ends up having to take charge of the family most of the time.

Reading this play definitely brought to mind some other examples of farce I have seen in the movies and on television. Generally, the absurdity of the piece reminded me of a Marx Brothers film, where the situations are ridiculous, the word play is abundant, and things progress at almost lightning speed. I got the same feeling of absurd hilarity from reading this play that I got from watching //Duck Soup//. More specifically, __The Vietnamization of New Jersey__ experience closely resembles that of the TV show //Married... with Children//, of which I watch reruns every now and then. Like Durang's play, //Married... with Children// deals with a "typical" American family that could not be more dysfunctional. A Frank Sinatra song plays during the credits, and you would think you were about to witness a good ole //Leave It To Beaver// type of program, but instead you are met with a cartoonish family that cannot seem to get anything right. The father is a dim-wit, the mother is one of the most annoying characters you will ever meet, and the children are dorky and promiscuous. The show has always screamed "farce" to me, and now I can link it with the similarly farcical __The Vietnamization of New Jersey__.