REVIEW: JACKANAPE AND THE FINGERMEN
Jackanape and the Fingermen
by D. Harlan Wilson
This collection of plays, Jackanape and the Fingermen, from Anti-Oedipus Press, has served as my introduction to the writing of D. Harlan Wilson. I had no foreknowledge of how to approach the texts nor expectation of what I would come away with. What I found was an absurd semiotic-drama crash course in existential comedy.
The first play, ‘Jackanape’ is a refreshing, frenetic and dark reworking of prop comedy vaudeville that turns the subject and object dichotomy on its head. The props are characters, the characters are plot devices, the performance is impossible. There is a humane contradiction at the core of the text which trades upon the open relationship between Modernism and slapstick, but also upon the relationship between violence and humour. It is not with a cold sense of irony that we laugh. Instead, when we laugh at characters being devoured by their personal possessions, it’s because it is the most sincere response we could have to the absurdity of modern life.
“If you can’t laugh at the dark, you shouldn’t grin like the Sphinx. Understand?”
The second play, ‘The Fingermen’ is a surreal dialogue led foray into situation comedy, where the situation is a support group for those who have lost their index fingers (of course). The plot unfolds like a film chimaera of ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Tales from the Crypt’, however, the likeness is only superficial and there is much more value in the impressionistic nature of the dialogue and staging than in the machinations of plot. ‘The Fingermen’ as a performance would require multiple viewings, the play is multi-levelled - literally.
To hazard a comparison, D. Harlan Wilson’s conception of the avant-garde in drama is in equal part Buster Keaton as it is Samuel Beckett. The Brechtian dynamics of Epic Theatre are also evident in his work; the narrative is non-linear or fractured, issues are left unresolved, the dismayed audience are as integral to the drama as the cast. However, there is an added self conscious dimension to these pieces as well which gives them a sympathetic foundation. It occurs to me, that in Wilson’s conception comedy is not just to entertain, it can be serious, it can affect. If that sounds like it appeals to you then take a read of this collection.
Jackanape and the Fingermen by D. Harlan Wilson
Out now from Anti-Oedipus Press