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Jean Genet
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The Balcony: A Play Kindle Edition

by Jean Genet (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 out of 5 stars 47 ratings
A masterpiece of twentieth-century drama by the iconic author of Our Lady of the Flowers: “ingenious, intellectually exciting, and, yes, still quite shocking” (The New York Times).
 
In the midst of a city ravaged by violent rebellion, a brothel caters to the elaborate role-playing fantasies of men from all walks of life. A gas company worker pretends to be a bishop while, in the next room, another customer dons a judge’s robe to savor the erotic pleasures of meting out justice—and punishment. These perverse costumed masquerades parody the larger, more violent dramas of the outside world. But as the anarchic political struggle threatens to topple society, even the revolutionaries come to believe that illusions are preferable to reality.
 
A poet, novelist, playwright, and outlaw, Jean Genet helped define French existential theater of the mid-twentieth century. Deeply influential and widely acclaimed, Genet’s The Balcony presents an unrelentingly profound and critical reflection of contemporary society.
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  1. Print length
    114 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grove Press
  4. Publication date
    January 21, 1994
  5. File size
    4.9 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Book jacket/back: The setting of Jean Genet's celebrated play is a brothel that caters to refined sensibilities and peculiar tastes. Here men from all walks of life don the garb of their fantasies and act them out: a man from the gas company wears the robe and mitre of a bishop; another customer becomes a flagellant judge, and still another a victorious general, while a bank clerk defiles the Virgin mary. These costumed diversions take place while outside a revolution rages which has isolated the brothel from the rest of the rebel-controlled city. In a stunning series of macabre, climactic scenes, Genet presents his caustic view of man and society.

Review

Play by Jean Genet, produced and published in 1956 as Le Balcon. Influenced by the Theater of Cruelty, The Balcony contains nine scenes, eight of which are set inside the Grand Balcony bordello. The brothel is a repository of illusion in a contemporary European city aflame with revolution. After the city's royal palace and rulers are destroyed, the bordello's costumed patrons impersonate the leaders of the city. As the masqueraders warm to their roles, they convince even the revolutionaries that the illusion created in the bordello is preferable to reality. -- The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B006T9BH7G
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; REV ed. edition (January 21, 1994)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 21, 1994
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.9 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 114 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 47 ratings

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Jean Genet

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
47 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Ben Cunningham
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2014
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    Excellent
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  • Mary K Gemmato
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Balcony
    Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2023
    The movie version was with Peter Falk, Leonard Nimoy and Shelly Winters. Very odd movie and intriguing play.
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  • H. Williams
    3.0 out of 5 stars Great set-up and opening scenes, but the ending is unclear and unfocused (not just ambiguous)
    Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Many people have seen the play "The Maids" or the realistic mid-70's movie with Glenda Jackson and Susannah York. But most of us are unfamiliar with "The Balcony."

    The opening scenes with ordinary men pretending to be The Bishop, The Judge, and The General in the brothel are very interesting and set up high expectations. But this potential was not fulfilled. I think that it was fine that the play remained ambiguous about the outside revolution and the play acting with the prostitutes. But by the end of the play, the speeches aren't very informative and didn't contribute to the plot or to understanding the characters. This is one case where the lack of popularity for the play is reflected by the ineffective ending. Like "The Maids," it starts out jokey and turns absurd, but without a stronger more tragic and involving ending it just doesn't seem as good.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Alfred Johnson
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Reality And The Mirror
    Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2010
    Recently, in reviewing the text for the plays "The Maids" and "The Blacks' by French writer and playwright, Jean Genet, I wrote the following first two paragraphs that apply to an appreciation of the play under review, "The Balcony", as well:

    "There was a time when I would read anything the playwright Jean Genet wrote, especially his plays. The reason? Well, for one thing, the political thing that has been the core of my existence since I was a kid, his relationship to the Black Panthers when they were being systematically lionized by the international white left as the "real" revolutionaries and systematically liquidated by the American state police apparatus that was hell-bend on putting every young black man with a black beret behind bars, or better, as with Fred Hampton, Mark Clark and long list of others, dead. Genet, as his somewhat autobiographical "Our Lady Of The Flowers" details came from deep within a white, French version of that same lumpen "street" milieu from which the Panthers were recruiting. Thus, kindred spirits.

    That kindred "street" smart relationship, of course, was like catnip for a kid like me who came from that same societal intersection in America, the place where the white lumpen thug elements meet the working poor. I knew the American prototype of Jean Genet, up close and personal, except, perhaps, for his own well-publicized homosexuality and that of others among the dock-side toughs that he hung around with. So I was ready for a literary man who was no stranger to life's seamy side. His play ,"The Maids", was the first one I grabbed (and I believe the first of his plays that I saw performed)."

    As I have mentioned elsewhere once I "discover" a writer I tend to read through everything else that he or she has written to see if there is anymore gold in store. That is the case here with "The Balcony" . If "The Maids' centers on the sexual fantasy and the social distortions that the class struggle accentuates, and "The Blacks" delves deeply into the "masks" worn to survive in the class and racial struggle, then "The Balcony" underscores the centrality of the real and illusionary in Genet's work. Here he tackles theme of revolution and counter-revolution as seen and felt through the characters who inhabit a brothel, clients and customers alike. That struggle, real enough in our world, is what drives the plot here. This is not, however, some quirky Marxist interpretation of revolutionary struggle, win or lose. It is not Leon Trotsky's theory of revolutionary tensions between the old and new societies and degeneration of the latter but it is a nice theatrical, stripped down look at those interpretations. If the play is acted and directed correctly it is well worth seeing. In the meantime read the text.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • cam bekker
    4.0 out of 5 stars Now for something completely different -
    Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2018
    There is no final version of this . Genet revised it often . A filmed version is incomplete . So you have to use your imagination as you read the dialogue . The theme seems to be why attempts to overthrow institutions lead to new institutions that mimic the earlier ones . In other words , new ways of thinking are needed but we all have been damaged by society's brainwashing .
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  • Not My Real Name
    4.0 out of 5 stars Confusing, Funny, Ingenious
    Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2004
    A great play about the continuum of illusions and reality and power as a result of positioning hehe
    It is especially relevant now when our world "where everything -- you can be quite sure, is falser than here"
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Claudia Saatchi
    5.0 out of 5 stars The real Genet
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2014
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    I first encountered this play at the Oxford Playhouse in a memorable production by Minos Volonakis. It also included a very young Stephanie Beecham in high heels, black stockings and not much else and wielding a whip! I've been hooked ever since - on Genet, that is!
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  • Graces_honest_reviews
    1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 10, 2015
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    DULL!
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