About the Play:

The Balcony Scene (English-language version of Le Balcon) is a full-length drama by Jean Genet, translated from the French by Bernard Frechtman. Set in a brothel in the midst of a revolution that has wiped out all the real holders of power, except the Chief of Police who now enacts the customers fantasies.

In the midst of a war-ravished city, a brothel caters to the elaborate role-playing fantasies of men from all walks of life. These perverse costumed masquerades parody and stylize the nature of the anarchic political struggle that rages outside. In a stunning series of macabre scenes, Genet presents his caustic view of man and society.

Cast: 4 women, 9 men

What people say:

"One of France’s most original and forceful novelists and playwrights." — The New York Times Book Review

"The Balcony is probably the most stunning subversive work of literature to be created since the writings of the famous Marquis.... A major dramatic achievement." — The New Republic

"The Balcony satisfies to a degree hitherto unknown our contemporary appetite for violence, perversion, and squalor." — The New Yorker

"A theatrical experience as startling as anything since Isben’s revelation that there was such a thing as syphilis." — Kenneth Tynan

"The most original and provocative writer of his generation." — The Times (London)

About the Playwright:

Jean Genet (1910-1986) was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a homeless man and petty criminal, but later took to writing. His work, much of it considered scandalous when it first appeared, is now placed among the classics of modern literature and has been translated and performed throughout the world.