Expert: John T. Aney - 6/4/2007

Question
It's not a homework question, John. I've had a thirty year career in the theater,
published books, run a professional theater company, and still find it an
interesting style discussion in my company. I wondered what your response
might be.

Now I know.

Hi John, Can you give me a clearer picture of the differences between acting
"comedy" and "farce"? As far as i can tell the line is vague.

Answer
Please accept my sincerest apologies.  You should know that I receive many, many questions on AllExperts that are homework questions - students looking for easy answers for an essay question on a take home exam.  It's very difficult for me to weed out those questions from the legitimate questions.

So, to answer your question as best I can, I think much of the difference between comedy and farce lies in the portrayal of the characters and the situations.  In farce, of course, the characters are often stereotypes, and the situations absurd, but certainly stereotyped characters are present in non-farce comedy.  Much of the comedy of farce comes from the situations that arise BECAUSE of the stereotyped characters...

I'd like to talk more about this, via regular email: johnaney@gmail.com.  I think this is an excellent question that deserves longer consideration.  Please forgive my initial brush-off - I hope you understand where it is coming from, and I hope you will give me a chance to redeem myself...

jta