NDVietnam

//__The Vietnamization of New Jersey__// __and Its Farce Characteristics__ In theatre the farce is a type of comedy. Specifically, the farce attempts to achieve comedy through unlikely, far-fetched and neurotic situations. Another very important part of a farce comedy is the presence of automatic behavior, which is behavior, either verbal or physical, that is spontaneous and without the proper self-censorship. Also, it is very common that farces will include changed identities and verbal humor. Word play is also seen in many of the theater works that fall under the farce category. As for//The Vietnamization of New Jersey (A American Tragedy//), it contains all of these various aspects in some way shaper or form.

One of the unlikely situations that one would see in a farce is present on the very first page of the play. As the family says hello at breakfast Et, the teenage son, takes a box of cereal and pours it down the front of his pants. After this, he begins to eat the corn flakes from inside his trousers. Another far-fetched moment occurs in scene 3 of Act 1, when David attempts to give Liat atonement for the violence that America had performed against her people in Vietnam. To do this David forces his father and mother to get on the floor while Et helps Liat direct her foot to the posteriors of his parents. The most striking and prominent example of an unlikely, far-fetched situation occurs when the audience of //The Vietnamization of New Jersey//, finds out that Liat is not actually Vietnamese. She lies to David about her heritage so that he will marry her, but it turns out that she is actually an Irish American from Schenectady, New York. Although this situation is very unlikely, it added needed comic relief to the story.

The automatic behavior in this story allows the audience to fully understand the absurdity of the play. Liat, and Ozzie provide us with the most prominent examples. Automatic behavior is first seen when Liat is introduced as a character in the play. As she describes her schooling, she blurts out uncontrolled, “I go to American Army School. My teachuhs best fucking stick men in the whole Vietnamese bush.” Up until this statement, it was assumed that Liat was a subtle, shy character. Christopher Durang gives her this line to show the audience that the absurdity of this farce play was going to be thorough, and no character was to be void of it. Even Ozzie, who must be considered the most down to earth character, is guilty of automatic behavior when she attempt to convince David of his wrongdoings by saying, “Harry, she’s a chinck. She’s got teensy slanted eyes.” Anyone who had self-control would realize that diction like this is unacceptable, but Ozzie cannot help herself and blurts out these racial slurs before her conscience can get the better of her.

After finishing my initial reading of The Vietnamization of New Jersey, I realized it reminded me of many contemporary forms of entertainment. Most prominently, it reminded me of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The main character, Larry David, is guilty of automatic behavior throughout the series, often making racially unacceptable statements without first thinking about what their affects will be. Curb also qualifies as a farce because of its deliberate absurdity. In particular, there is one episode in which Larry alerts his blind friend that the woman he is dating is not the television model that she claims to be. His friend dumps her after this realization, a situation that the particular episode draws upon for the majority of the comedic situations in the episode. This episode, entitled “The Blind Date,” is very similar to David’s realization that Liat is not the Vietnamese woman that he believed he married while away at war.