[.ca] The Balcony (ISBN 0802150349)

Thin line between the straight world and a brothel:
The madame of the famous Grand Balcony brothel provides a safe place where her clients can come to act out their fantasies and take on the identities of important government and religious figures in the real world. Outside the brothel, a revolution is raging, assisted by a former prostitute of the Grand Balcony who uses her voice to spur the rebels on to a greater victory. When the government finally topples, the whores and clients work together to take their impersonations out of the bedroom and restore order by assuming the identities of the great figures who they used to play in bed. Sartre referred to Genet as the prototype of the existential man, whose past as a convicted felon and his subsequent literary career illustrated a life where personal choice drove the moral distinctions. I have read an been absorbed by a number of Genet's works, my favorites being _Our Lady of the Flowers_ and _The Maids_. While I don't believe that _The Balcony_ is up to the level of either of those works, it's an important piece of the history of the theater of the absurd. Worth reading. Perhaps now more than ever in a world where actors regularly transition to politics.

Ingtruiging, confusing, full of risky ideas:
The ideas that life is an illusion and that we are all actors perpetuating our own illusions are fascinating. This book contains some intruiging Existential ideas. I did get confused at times over who was playing which role.

Confusing, which is the point:
Loved by Sartre, this play mixes politics with sex to a hilarious degree. Love the dark humor if nothing else. One of Genet's better efforts.

Confusing, Funny, Ingenious:
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"