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Le Balcon

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This book is a replica of the original from the collections of The New York Public Library; it was produced from digital images created by The New York Public Library and its partners as part of their preservation efforts. To enhance your reading pleasure, the aging and scanning artifacts have been removed using patented page cleaning technology. We hope you enjoy the result.

233 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1956

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About the author

Jean Genet

193 books1,233 followers
Jean Genet was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. 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.

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5 stars
999 (29%)
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1,209 (35%)
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885 (25%)
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238 (6%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
Profile Image for Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs.
1,270 reviews18.4k followers
April 23, 2024
I think I have to defer to my erudite friend Steven's better judgement on the only possible way of becoming bowled over by the cumulative effect of this blockbuster.

For visually it is akin to the Angel's Opening of the Seventh Seal in the Book Of Revelation. It's that colossal.

Yet, merely read, its muffled excoriation of established yet concealed depravity is hollow - like using a woolly drumstick on a kettle drum!

See the play performed FIRST. That's the key.

It'll UNMAKE you.

My personal memories of its performance drift up to me from deep chasms of sleepy memory....

It was 1973. I was going to graduate in the Spring from university, B.A. in hand. But just WHAT evil forces awaited me in my first office?

Nightly, I'd come home to my digs - a warm and friendly rooming house on a leafy avenue - and that wonderful family'd be glued to bulletins of Henry Kissinger once again stepping up the bombing of Cambodia.

Was he like one of the powerful titans of The Balcony? Rumours of his private single life at that turbulent time eked out in Cosmo...

Or, more likely, like the powerful corporate media titans that suck all the energy - and money - from us nowadays? With their glamorous goads to the extraction of profit and power?

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Right?

I'd be wrong if I didn't admit the Angel of Prophetic Revelation spoke to me that evening from the stage of the Grand Theatre in Kingston!

For there, on that stage, in a fine performance that was the brainchild of my Alma Mater's Drama Department, all Hell was vividly exhumed in a dawning epiphany.

THIS is the grim reality of the world, it seemed to say.

I trembled in my boots, overshadowed by its monolithic contortions of Pure Evil.

And you know what? I'm not even going to tell you the details of this play, Genet's masterful mise en scene. You can find those on any web synopsis. The only way to experience it is to SEE it.

Suffice it to say I knew Exactly whereof the existentialist author spoke.

The characters are Gigantic Freddies from the Hallowe'en series, in their heart of hearts. It's that ugly.

***
But there's a real reason for his transmogrification of our justice system here. Genet had a mercilessly miserable existence BEFORE he was sentenced to prison. But afterwards?

He experienced a game-changing existential rebirth, for he found love for the first time their between antiseptically cold prison walls. Being gay, he found other male lovers who really CARED about him.

And so the old outside world of justice, and indeed the Corporate Establishment itself, had suddenly become a world of gigantic monstrous Freddies.

But perhaps Jean Genet shoulda said that a nondescript giant Freddy lives deep down within the heart of each one of us.

And that there, with him, but For the grace of God, go we all in life…

And as might have gone I, too, but for warnings like Genet's.
Profile Image for Dream.M.
1,039 reviews655 followers
August 2, 2024
نمایشنامه "بالکن" از "ژان ژنه"، نمایشنامه ای بسیار جنجالی که من چیز زیادی ازش نفهمیدم🤦‍♀
حوادث این نمایشنامه در زمان و مکان نامشخص و در روسپی خانه ای اتفاق میفته که افراد مختلفی از جمله اسقف، قاضی، ژنرال ، رئیس پلیس ... به اونجا میرن تا فانتزی های عجیب و نامتعارف جنسی خودشون رو اجرا کنن و این در حالیه که بیرون از روسپی خانه‌ در خیابان های اطراف، انقلابی در حال وقوعه و صدای تفنگ و افراد معترض شنیده میشه.
در این نمایشنامه مردان به فاحشه خانه میان و وانمود میکنن که در منصب قدرت هستند یا شغل هایی غیر از اونچه که در واقعیت بهش مشغولند رو دارن و دخترها هم نقش هایی مثل اسب، گدا، دزد و ووو رو در مقابل بعهده میگیرن تا فانتزی های جنسی شکل بگیره . اما داستان نمایش اصلا حول محور مسائل جنسی نمیگرده .
با اینکه من در طول خوندن نمایش گیج شدم، و همخوان ها هم همینطور، اما حدس میزنم پوینت نمایشنامه رو تاحدودی فهمیده باشم.
من فکر میکنم این هرج و مرج گیج کننده و دیالوگ های بی‌ربط،  نمونه کوچکی از دنیای بزرگ و جهانی هستش که نویسنده در اون زندگی میکنه . افرادی که به چیزی که نیستن تظاهر میکنن، از بین رفتن مرز اخلاقیات، و بی اعتنایی حکمرانان فاسد به ملتی که اعتراض شون رو فریاد میزنن. آینه های داخل اتاق هایی که هر صحنه نمایش در یکی از اونها رخ میده، بنظر میاد میخواد بگه هیچ رفتار و هیچ کسی توی این جهان واقعی نیست و همه چیز بازتابی از واقعیت و توهمه.
.....
راستش درمورد نظرم هیچ مطمعن نیستم.
از این نمایشنامه هم تجلیل زیادی شده که باعث میشه به گیجی خودم بیشتر بی اعتماد بشم. نمایشنامه" کلفت ها " رو قبلا از ژان ژنه خونده بودم که در مقایسه خیلی مفهوم تره😄
بهرحال خوندنش تجربه جالبی بود ولی تاًثیری روم نداشت.
امیدوارم یکروز بتونم بفهممش.
Profile Image for Steven Godin.
2,782 reviews3,395 followers
April 26, 2020
Not quite sure how this ended up getting produced in America, but I have to say that Joseph Strick's 1963 film captured the play much better. With Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy even getting a small role before he ventured off to space.

The Balcony mostly takes place in Madame Irma’s house of illusions, which is an elaborate brothel catered for men who want to live out their most decadent fantasies. Some the scenes are brilliantly orchestrated and quite bizarre featuring a Bishop, a Judge, and a General while the prostitutes take on roles such as thief, sinner, and horse but do not necessarily stay in character. The Balcony employs a number of visual and audio devices in order to emphasize the relationship between the real and the illusory. With mirrors or screens, reflecting the images of the real or the fake. Genet called The Balcony “the glorification of the Image and of Reflection.” Nothing in The Balcony is as it appears. The men impersonate statuesque figures, but they do it so unrealistically, only wanting to be them in appearance only. All the while gun fire is constantly heard from outside creating a threatening atmosphere.

This really is a book that is pale in comparison to both stage productions and the movie I mentioned. Although for me it was still worth it.

Profile Image for Greg.
654 reviews99 followers
February 12, 2012
This book is a work of dramatic genius. Genet poses for us the question, "What is the nature of virtue and its relationship with power?" In his setting, he chooses a brothel, with the actors in the brothel trapped in a never-ending cycle of violent fiction that mirrors the events of the revolution happening outside the brothel walls.

The are great, witty lines such as "The pimp has a grin, never a smile." There are great, beautiful lines such as "It's the hour when night breaks away from the day, my dove, let me go." There are poignant lines such as "It's a true image, born of a false spectacle." Lines such as these bring us back to the questions of the play.

You could go on and on asking questions about this play - a true mark of its genius. Genet cleverly connects the outside world with the "inside" reality when he has the madame state "One can hear all that's going on in the street. Which means that from the street one can hear what's going on in the house." The men inside, exacting their devilish fantasies, are in some cases the actual power figures of the city. Their inability to hold both power and virtue is not, I don't think, meant to be an indictment. Rather, it is meant to point to the reality that the powerful exist without virtue. Genet returns us to that reality with his closing lines "You must now go home, where everything -- you can be quite sure -- will be falser than here..."
Profile Image for Jonfaith.
2,148 reviews1,749 followers
March 23, 2017
Would it perturb you to see things as they are? To gaze at the world tranquilly and accept responsibility for your gaze, whatever it might see?

I found this less Brecht and more Passolini. Revolution became chic at some point. This is about assuming roles in tumultuous times. I found the endearing aspect to be the role of the siren or chanteuse.

The pimp has a grin, never a smile

Much as Steven Godin asserted on GR today I think the experience would have been enhanced by viewing this staged. I don't feel that when I read Brecht or Beckett.
Profile Image for Uroš Đurković.
905 reviews230 followers
January 1, 2024
Žene je car, jedan od najživopisnijih likova istorije književnosti. A konkurencija je jaka.

Ovo je izuzetno važna drama – obavezno štivo za poznavaoce pozorišta. Funkcioniše i kao film – gledao sam i sasvim finu adaptaciju Džozefa Strika.

Jasno je da je bordel sinegdoha sveta i da su različiti prohtevi njegovih posetilaca odraz odnosa moći, koji se, naposletku, obijaju o glave. Tu je i želja za moć, revolucija, destrukcija, Breht, Pirandelo, Arto, apsurd, iluzija realnosti, realnost iluzije, pucnji, svašta nešto.

Ali, avaj, uprkos značaju i uz sve poštovanje, napor uložen u čitanje pokazuje da nije bio najbolji trenutak za susret.
Profile Image for Ben.
908 reviews59 followers
March 8, 2016
Hmm . . . I really like what Genet was trying to do here, but I'm not sure that it is pulled off as well as it could have been. This play is very much postmodern, and in that sense it reminded me a lot of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow in terms of style and themes. Like Genet (and also like the Frankfurt School sociologists, with their emphasis on Freud's death instinct/Eros v. Thanatos and the Marquis de Sade, with whom Genet is often compared), Pynchon also equated the appetite for power with sado-masochism; and ultimately the love of power is linked not only to sexual depravity but to a love of Death.

In Genet's play the main action takes place in a brothel in which the players are really putting on a performance, each taking on a role equated with power in society (Each power figure appears in the play, according to the scene notes, as "larger than life"), while a revolution is going on outside the brothel walls. Each player acts out his role accordingly: the Bishop demands that one sins so that he can offer forgiveness, the Judge demands that one breaks the law so he can hand down a sentence, the Executioner carries out the judge's sentences. And the same goes for the General, the Chief of Police, etc. -- each playing his part.

In terms of style, Genet (with this play in particular) has also often been compared to Bertolt Brecht. And this is certainly understandable, as there are many stylistic similarities and as Genet, like Brecht, is concerned here with critically exploring broad social problems, representing them not realistically, but as some representation thereof, something that Genet makes plain throughout as his characters often refer to themselves as wearing "masks," as being "statues," "images," etc.

And the play also reminded me more in its thematic content (but also to some degree stylistically) of Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour. And, of course, the work was also redolent of the brothel scenes in later volumes of Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

In all, stylistically what Genet was doing here had been done before and thematically there was also a precedent, and other artists have since dealt with similar style and themes more successfully. I always think when reading a translated work that perhaps my lack of enthusiasm (or alternatively my love for the work) is owed more to the translation than to the work itself. And this may well be the case. This is the first work of Genet's that I've read, and I think I will at least read his debut novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, before reaching any conclusions about Genet's work overall. And my opinions of that work will likely determine whether or not I'd be interested in reading any more Genet thereafter. At this point I'm just not sold.
Profile Image for David Stephens.
793 reviews15 followers
January 14, 2014
Jean Genet's controversial play The Balcony takes place within a "house of illusions" where men dress up as bishops, generals, judges, and even the indigent to play out bizarre sexual fantasies while a revolution takes place throughout the surrounding city. It retains the nonspecific time and location of other absurdist plays but adds a meta-theatrical flamboyance. It's as if Genet tossed sex, religion, Marxism, psychoanalysis, reality, and illusion in a blender together and this is the concoction that emerged.

All of these elements continually slide around and meld together in different ways. Parallels are drawn between sex and revolution and the illusions of both common and powerful men. (Parallels are probably drawn between sex and just about everything else here, really.)

The most noticeable aspect of the play is the ubiquity of performance. Not only do the men who come to the brothel pretend to be in positions of power, it seems that according to Genet, the actual people in power are pretending every bit as much. Their alleged power only comes from the heightened sense of importance they have instilled in themselves through frivolous measures. There is no clear distinction between any of these people—purportedly great or small. The prince and the pauper are the same person.

However, if Genet denigrates authority figures, he's not much kinder to the lower strata. Revolutionaries are not so much out to create social change but revel in chaos and debauchery while those who obsequiously follow the orders of the higher-ups have basically become slaves to actors pretending they are in charge.

As odd a mix as this all might sound, it does somehow seem to work. Even if it's not always clear what's going on—the last act became particularly confusing—there is a morbid exuberance that impels readers/viewers forward not only to see how far this eccentric play can push the boundaries but also to force them to make sense of the events and find where their own performance fits into this brothel of a world.
Profile Image for eve.
175 reviews403 followers
February 6, 2021
du génie... tout simplement

[04/2020 : probablement une des meilleures pièces de Genet (les Beckett vibes !!)]
Profile Image for Maddie.
315 reviews51 followers
January 8, 2025
Tbh, I skimmed the last ~10 pages, because it was just too challenging for me to really understand 😭
Profile Image for Samane⚘️.
216 reviews13 followers
August 21, 2025
جامعه‌ی امروز چیزی جز نسخه‌ای گسترده‌تر از همان «فاحشه‌خانه‌ی بالکن» ژنه نیست. هر یک از ما در زندگی روزمره نقش‌هایی را بازی می‌کنیم: شهروند مطیع، انقلابی، قاضی، مؤمن، یا مدیر. آیینه‌های این جامعه—رسانه‌ها، تبلیغات، نمادهای رسمی—غرور، افتخار، عدالت‌خواهی یا حتی اعتراض ما را بازمی‌تابانند و به آن‌ها شکلی آیینی می‌دهند.

کنفرانس‌های مطبوعاتی، رژه‌های نظامی، نشان‌ها، مراسم سوگند یا حتی انتخابات و شعارهای خیابانی، چیزی نیستند جز «اتاق‌های ایرما» در مقیاسی کلان؛ فضاهایی که در آن نقش‌ها بازتولید و تثبیت می‌شوند تا ما به «واقعی بودن» قدرت باور بیاوریم.

قدرت در چنین جامعه‌ای نه یک جوهر ثابت، بلکه هنرِ اداره و تنظیم درست تصاویر است: هر کس بتواند نمایشی قانع‌کننده‌تر بیافریند، در نظر مردم صاحب اقتدار می‌شود. بنابراین همان‌طور که در بالکن ژنه بدل‌ها توانستند نظم را حفظ کنند، در جهان امروز نیز تصویر و بازنمایی، جای حقیقت و واقعیت را گرفته‌اند.
Profile Image for Ezgi T.
417 reviews1,129 followers
Read
January 1, 2022
THE CHIEF OF POLICE: I’ve been advised to appear in the form of a gigantic phallus. A prick of great stature . . .
THE QUEEN: George! You?
THE CHIEF OF POLICE: What do you expect? If I’m to symbolize the nation, your joint . . .
THE ENVOY: Allow him, Madame. It’s the tone of the age.
THE JUDGE: A phallus? Of great stature? You mean—enormous?
THE CHIEF OF POLICE: Of my stature.
THE JUDGE: That’ll be very difficult to bring off.
THE ENVOY: Not so very. What with new techniques and our rubber industry, remarkable things can be worked out. No, I’m not worried about that, but rather . . . what the Church will think of it?
THE BISHOP: No definite pronouncement can be made this evening.
Profile Image for Rıdvan.
549 reviews93 followers
July 26, 2018
Ooooo.
Harika bir oyun bu.
Oldukça da ağır ve zor.
Okurken bile yoruldum ki oynaması ne zor olur kim bilir?
Üstelik seyirciye neredeyse hiç bişey vermiyor.
Seyirci bi zahmet düşünecek, kafa yoracak, üzerinde tartışmalar yapacak ve bir şeyler anlayıp bir yerlere gelecek.

Oyunda temsili oldugunu düşündüğüm karakterler var.
Bir cellat, bir yargıç, bir başpiskopos, bir polis şefi, bir kraliyet elçisi ve elbette ki kraliçe.
Her biri bulunduğu makamı temsil ediyor. Geçmişte var olanları, günümüzde var olanları ve gelecekte var olacakları.
Fransız devriminin ortasında buluyoruz kendimizi. Halk çıldırmış. Her yerde bombalar patlıyor. Sarayı yıkmaya başlamışlar bile.
Enteresan bir ironidir ki kraliçe bir kerhane işletiyor. Bayıldım doğrusu.
Yazar bu şekilde herkesi tek tek sorguluyor ve gerçek yüzlerini gözlerimizin önüne seriyor adeta.
Yazar kitabın başına bir iki sayfalık bir not düşmüş. Bu oyunu böyle oynayın manasında. Sağda solda görüyorum oyunda ufak tefek değişiklikler yapıp oyunu bol eden yönetmenler var. Yapmayın diyor.
Oyunu anladığım kadarıyla adam haklı. gercekten hiç bişeyini ellememek daha doğru sanırım. Ya da adam öyle buyurgan bir şekilde tarif etmiş ki korktum.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Thomas Stroemquist.
1,657 reviews148 followers
June 17, 2024
I read the first 20 or so pages of this on the bus a few weeks ago and could not get my head around it, so I started something else. I decided to go back and realised I would have to start over and this time I was immediately all in and finished it in one sitting. There are plenty of material written on this play and interpretations of it - most considerably more voluminous than the short text itself, but the biggest impact is the delve into the human psyche and (dark) desires, mostly to do with power and statue. The customers at the "house of illusions" (brothel) are hooked enough to keep coming (with risk for life) to get their fantasy fix even when overshadowed by a very dramatic reality all around (a raging revolution). I would love to see this on the stage. I think.
Profile Image for Feliks.
495 reviews
July 12, 2016
Mind-blowing. Everyone should at least be aware of what Genet accomplished here. He was way ahead of his time.
Profile Image for Czarny Pies.
2,831 reviews1 follower
September 13, 2023
I decided to upgrade my rating of this play earlier today as I was reading "Understanding Media" in which the author Marshall McLuhan states: "Jean Genet's 'The Balcony' is a play on the theme of society since the advent of the photograph as a brothel environed by horror and violence." (p. 189)

The action of "The Balcony" does indeed takes place inside a brothel while a revolution is taking place outside. The brothel caters to fancies. The johns can choose to dress as whatever power figure they choose to be. The police chief in the course of the play watches clients dress in turn as a judge, a bishop and a general. Finally, the insurrection is crushed and the leader of the rebels enters the brothel asking to dress up as a police chief. "At last" says the police chief, "they have seen the truth."

"The Balcony" then offers one of the greatest jokes of the twentieth century. In an era when police states were becoming the norm, it was time that our sexual fantasies adapt. What I had missed when I first wrote my review was Genet's thesis that the photograph creates false images and for this reason was the prime tool of the printed press of the era.

"The Balcony" was on the English literature course that I took in my last year of secondary school. This is where it belongs. Despite the demise of newspapers, I think that "The Balcony" still has a role to play in the school environment where a major goal is to move the student from teen to adult fiction.

Despite the very pertinent analysis of the politics of the photography, the play itself is rather plodding. The plot has no more complexity than is in my summary and the characters are among the most superficial the reader will ever encounter.
Profile Image for Mohammad Amin.
33 reviews2 followers
August 2, 2024
یکی دیگ از نمایشنامه‌هایی که همخوانی شد ولی برخلاف بقیه به دل هیچکس نشست در نهایت
ژان ژنه نویسنده که اسمش داخل لیست همخوانی همراه خیلی های دیگ نااشنا بود و هیچ حسی نسبت به نوشتار یا موضوع نوشته هاش نداشتم و بعد از این کتاب هم سعی میکنم نداشته باشم :)
موضوع کلی کتاب راجب اتفاقات در حال رخ دادن در یک فاحشه خونه هستش که در همون زمان شهر درگیر یک آشوب بزرگ هم میشه و هر صحنه داخل یک مکان یا اتاق مشخصی از اونجا رخ میده
راجب ترجمه باید بگم که خب چون ناشر متفرقه بود از زیر فیلتر سانسور نگذشته و البته اگر هم می گذشت چیز زیادی ازش نمیموند و خب با تمام اینها ترجمه خوبی بود و از لحاظ ترجمه خرده زیادی نمیشه بهش گرفت
شروع داستان و بدنه اصلی اون راجب شخصیت های برجسته یک ملت هست که هر کدوم داخل اتاقی تاثیر پذیر از شغلشون و جایگاهشون هستش که خب برای مثال "قاضی داخل اتاقی شبیه به دادگاه همراه یک جلاد در حال التماس به زن که گناهش رو انکار کنه تا اون بتونه به جلاد دستور بده و اون هم شروع به کتک زدن بکنه و در آخر از زن رنج و درد به گناهش اعتراف کنه نه اینکه اول کار بگه اره من انجام دادم و به شدت هم پشیمونم" و شخصیت های دیگ که هم تصویر سازی خوبی داشتن و هم دیالوگ های انتخاب شده به سادگی تمام بودن و انقدر پیچیده نبودن نه نشه هیچی فهمید منظوری چیه که بخش اعظمی از جذب شدن من به این اثر همین علت بود
پایان کتاب برخلاف شروع و بدنه اون اونقدرها هم راضی کننده نبود و خب تقریبا سوال همه ما لاقل این بود که کسی فهمید چی شد؟ (خودم اولین نفر بودم نفهمیدم)
شخصیت ها در آخر کتاب به طوری هویت اصلی خودشون رو فراموش کردن و دست به نقش بازی کردن کردند که تنها صحنه کتاب بود که واقعا حس میکردم هر شخص داره نقش اسمش رو بازی میکنه مثلا رئیس پلیس سعی داره شغلش رو انجام بده و شبیه بهش حرف بزنه
جان میوه کلام هم اینکه نه میتونم بگم بد بود نه میتونم بگم خوب بود و در کل پیشنهاد نمیکنمش
Profile Image for سیــــــاوش.
258 reviews3 followers
December 29, 2021
نمایشنامه‌های ژان ژنه از لحاظ بار سیاسی و انتقادی ریشخند و تمسخر و تحقیر بت‌های حاکم است... سال ��۹۷۵ مقامات دولتی فرانسه نمایشنامه بالکن را ممنوع کردند.
ژان ژنه زمانی گفت برای گفتن از حقیقت باید دروغ گفت. از این نظر میشود گفت برای کشف حقیقت جایی جز بالکن وجود ندارد. جایی که رویایی درونی به وقایع بیرونی تبدیل میشود و وقایع دنیای بیرون به رویای درونی بدل میشود. مثل جایی که روژه رهبر انقلابی با حقیقت وضع خویش و حقیقت دشمن خویش یعنی رئیس پلیس رو به رو نمیشود مگر در خانه‌ی اوهام.

Profile Image for Fadillah.
830 reviews51 followers
April 11, 2023
ROGER (thoughtfully): Twenty women for Chantal?
THE MAN (Sharply): A hundred.
ROGER (still pensively): And it's probably because of her that we'll win. She already embodies the Revolution. ...
THE MAN: A hundred. You agree?
ROGER: Where are you taking her? And what'll she have to do?
CHANTAL: We'll see. Don't worry, I was born under a lucky star. As for the rest of it, I realize my power. The people love me, they listen to me, they follow me.
ROGER: What will she do?
THE MAN: Hardly anything. As you know, we're attacking the Palace at dawn. Chantal will go in first. She'll sing from a balcony. That's all.
ROGER: A hundred women. A thousand and maybe more. So she's no longer a woman. The creature they make of her out of rage and despair has her price. In order to fight against an image Chantal has frozen into an image. The fight is no longer taking place in reality, but in the lists. Field azure. It's the combat of allegories. None of us know any longer why we revolted. So she was bound to come round to that.
THE MAN: Well, is it yes? Answer, Chantal. It's for you to
answer.
CHANTAL (to the Man): I'd like us to be alone for a moment. I've got something else to say.
(THE MAN moves off and goes back into the shadow.)
ROGER (violently): I didn't steal you for you to become a unicorn or a two-headed eagle.
CHANTAL: You don't like unicorns.
ROGER: I've never been able to make love to them. (He caresses her.) Nor to you either.
- Scene Six : The Balcony by Jean Genet
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Its a play that sets in a brothel whereby men paid for their fantasy to play men in power. Outside the brothel, the revolution is currently ongoing and this is where a huge uproar occurred when Chantal, one of the prostitutes decided to quit and joined the movement. Since this is a classic and also translated from French to English, it took me a while to get used to the way it was written. It could be also the way it was translated, but i am not sure on this part since i don’t understand french. What Jean Genet try to demonstrate here is more on the illusion versus reality (these common men paid to live out their fantasies), Revolution and counter revolutionary and political upheaval of the twentieth century. I also think that this play was written because of his contempt towards prostitution. This is solely because his mother was a prostitute and he was being abandoned by her. He also didn’t know who his father was. Overall, the play was a nice change for once. I read it in one shot. Although i must admit that it can be somewhat confusing on what’s going on and the symbolism can be a hot or miss for some readers. Read it at your own risk!
Profile Image for neil.
26 reviews
Read
May 27, 2023
Carmen:… do they keep their revels in a house of illusions tucked away in the back of their heads in miniature form, far off? But present?

Irma: It’s possible, child. No doubt they do. Like a Chinese lantern left over from a carnival, and waiting for the next one, or, if you prefer, like an imperceptible light in the imperceptible window of an imperceptible castle that they can enlarge instantly whenever they feel like going there to relax. (machine-gun fire).
Profile Image for Sahar Esmaeili Aghdam.
22 reviews18 followers
October 14, 2018
"بالکن" نمایشنامه ایست که در بحبوحه انقلاب و جنگ جهانی دوم در فرانسه ی ۱۹۵۰ و تحت اشغال نازی ها روایت می شود ازآنجایی که ژنه علاقه زیادی به سیاست و مسائل جنسی داشت مضمون اکثر کتاب هایش سیاسی،انقلابی و جنسی ست. کتاب هم رویکرد سیاسی دارد هم فلسفی سیاسی به لحاظ وجود انتقادی از اوضاع نابسامان جامعه که بی شباهت به اوضاع کنونی ما نیست و فلسفی از جهت مغاک بین واقعیت و توهم به بیان ساده تر حقیقت درونی و نقاب بیرونی. نمایشنامه کاملا کنایه آمیز افول قوانین خودساخته بشر مِن جمله دین رو نشون می ده‌‌‌‌‌
جایی که پلیس، کشیش، قاضی همه و همه به صورت پنهانی در رفت و آمد به فاحشه خانه ای هستند که تمام صحنه های نمایش از آغاز تا به انتها در آنجا به تصویر کشیده می شود همه آن ها در واقعیت با نقاب هایشان ظاهر می شوند اما پشت پرده هویت های حقیقی خودشون رو نهفته نگه داشته اند. دراصل ژنه با نشان دادن تحولات جامعه عصر خود به شکل واقع گرایانه با تمام سانسورها و موانع چاپ اثر به گمانم امیدوارانه درصدد ایجاد تغییریست که شاید انقلاب آن را ایجاد کند. لازم به ذکر است که این اثر شاهکار زمانه ی خودش بود.
Profile Image for Airam.
255 reviews39 followers
June 11, 2017
I lost count of how many times I have read this play, furthermore I have watched it being rehearsed over and over and performed three times, still I am quite sure I do not understand what is going on.
I can't tell reality from fantasy, I don't understand who has power and who's faking, or even if anyone actually has power or is faking. Every time I read it, there's something new to it, but I feel like I haven't read it enough times, it still puzzles me, I can't think straight.
This play is rich for many reasons, but the biggest one for me is how challenging it is to process it.
Profile Image for Shelby (Grace with Books).
866 reviews231 followers
April 14, 2020
The Balcony is aa play that explores the relationship between realism and fantasy. The setting, a brothel where the clientele pays to live in a very realistic version of their fantasies. But when the outside world or "the real" starts to seep in, the clients have a hard time separating fact from fiction and start to lose themselves as they get lost in their roles.
The Balcony by Jean Genet relies quite heavily on the concept of icons and symbols. Powerful men come to Irma’s brothel to embody these “symbols” of society such as the bishop, the judge, and more. They request the experience be as realistic as possible so they can embody that character, literally become it themselves.
Through this, I believe Genet is trying to say, literally anybody can become a symbol. Fantasy and reality are so closely intertwined that it truly only takes the right outfit and choice words to convince the world you are someone else.
Profile Image for lauraღ.
2,346 reviews172 followers
June 4, 2022
In life their role is to keep the show going, railing it through the mud of everyday reality. Here, theatre and appearance keep their purity: the ceremony remains intact.

Interesting! But a bit too allegorical for me to really enjoy it that much. Most of the action is staged in a brothel during a revolution, in an unnamed time and place. Every time I felt like I was just starting to get into a character, we'd switch focus for a while, and I ended up with few points of connection. Most of the insight that I really enjoyed came from things I learned after the fact, like the fact that an old French name for brothels is 'house of illusions'. Might have hit harder on a whole if I'd listened to or watched a performance, or tried it in French. Some great lines here and there though (Fuck off! I'm trying to search my soul!) and I look forward to reading Genet's prose, which is a different kind of experience.
Profile Image for Carlos.
2,704 reviews78 followers
December 22, 2017
This is one of the most puzzling plays I’ve read. At one level it is quite obvious with clear symbols of different parts of the state and the interplay of illusion with reality. On another level however, the interactions between these aspects gets murky and pivotal parts of the play are ambiguous in its implications. The result is a play that really makes you think and question whether you understood what you thought you understood. After finding nothing interesting in Genet’s Funeral Rites I was quite glad to find something admirable by this greatly revered author. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed a unique theater experience.
Profile Image for Jim.
2,417 reviews799 followers
March 26, 2022
Jean Genet's The Balcony gives us a city in the middle of a violent revolution seen through the eyes of a brothel or "house of illusions" called The Grand Balcony in which clients dressed as bishops, judges, and generals act out their desires. I remember a 1960s movie starring Shelley Winters which was a bowdlerized version of this play.

This is a play that reads well. I would love to see a good performance that does justice to Genet's original.

Profile Image for Adela Rachi.
18 reviews1 follower
September 13, 2019
I gave it 5 stars because, to me, The Balcony does not try to “prove” anything. The writer hides himself among the rebels. “The beauty of their songs will make them soft”. That’s all and, in the end, you’ll find yourself whispering with Genet “Everything beautiful on earth you owe to masks”. Absolutely loved it.
Profile Image for Ivy-Mabel Fling.
634 reviews45 followers
September 19, 2019
Reading this made me think more of Baudrillard than of Brecht but I did find it interesting. In modern life the mask is often more important than the man and some of the masks here were quite enthralling! Some readers might find it slightly shocking but it does have a lot to say about those in power at the moment!
Profile Image for susa.
87 reviews2 followers
October 19, 2022
qué ha sido esto. no me he enterado de nada… siento que es una obra muy buena pero me habría gustado entender algo. son 100 paginazas encima… jean genet podías haber explicado algo en alguna y no volverte loco simplemente. no sé es una sugerencia.
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