Dramatic Strategies and Stratagems

Abstract

Various strategies are used by Cocteau in The Infernal Machine to convey his reading of the Oedipus myth and bring out, in an encoded form, its relevance for modern audiences. The monster, a figure emblematic of the fantastic, serves as a paradigm that informs not only Cocteau’s argument but also the whole play as a poetic work. The play mixes the comic with the tragic and the pathetic, intertextuality with camp, parody with satire and pastiche, and poetry with slang and clichés. In addition, the specificity of the theatre as an artistic medium is masterfully put to use, with movement (acting), forms, volumes, and colors (settings, lighting, props, and costumes) serving not only as semiotic signs to illustrate or supplement the written text but also to direct the reader’s or the spectator’s response. The play amuses, stirs emotions, throws a new light on the ancient myth, and raises haunting questions about traditionally sacred values. The uniqueness of Cocteau’s treatment of the Oedipus myth in The Infernal Machine consists in its blending an amused perspective on human affairs with a deeply affecting existential despair. The play is a tragedy clad in comic attire.

Is art reasonable? If it is, then theatre is only a lie that consists in letting us believe that we are what we are not. But if art is unreasonable, then it [theatre] ceases to cheat the world. It becomes a new, mysterious and marvelous form of truth.

—Cocteau, L’Impromptu du Palais Royal (The Impromptu of Palais Royal) (1962)¹