Nadja Mattioli

The Blacks: A Clown Show by Jean Genet is a play written as a postwar and post-colonial satire in 1958. The play discusses ideas such as race, the black and white binary, racial prejudice and stereotypes as well as the reification of those socially imposed stereotypes. What makes the play so remarkable is its complicated structure and the many inversions of these concepts manifested through a meta-theatrical form, the "play-within-a-play". It is precisely because of the use of meta-theatrical elements that the play is able to unfold and take its course. Important to note is that the play was written for an all-black cast and an all-white audience, juxtaposing the actors with the spectators in reality just as much as they are juxtaposed within the actual play. The usage of masks makes it possible for the actors to slip into the role of white post-colonialists, allowing them to play with the idea of performativity on several layers, since the mask is used both as a tool and a symbol.

Ancient Greek tragedy addresses a myriad of themes, from questions of identity to socio-political changes and issues. The Bacchae is a perfect example of these themes, especially regarding the question of gender (self) and the differences between women and men (other). Dionysus, returning to his mother’s birthplace, wants to come “home” and be recognized and worshiped as a god. Yet, he finds resistance and denial by Pentheus, his cousin, who is also the king of Thebes. It seems that only through utter acceptance of his deity, Dionysus can actually become a God – doubt or denial remove his god-like supremacy. Thus, transforming his wrath into action, he does not only want to take revenge upon Pentheus and punish him for his disbelief, but the whole city must suffer obliteration. Disguised – or better, masked - as a mortal, he changes his identity into what he does not want to be assimilated with in order to strategically take out his enemy.