Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
What is the author's style in Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad by Arthur L. Kopit?
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Although in part a parody, Kopit's play also makes use of absurdist drama. For example, language falters, making communication difficult, particularly for Jonathan, who stammers and stutters his way through the play. Characters are also dysfunctional and exaggerated types. Madame Rosepettle is a monster of maternalism, for example, while Jonathan, her victim, is a hyperbolic bundle of inhibitions and fears. There is also an irreverent treatment of serious matters, especially love and death. Havoc is played with logic as well, when, for example, the stuffed body of Jonathan's father momentarily comes to life, or when the Venus flytraps start growing at an unnatural rate.
A specific quality of much absurdism in both drama and fiction is black humor, evoked in places in which grotesque elements commingle with serious concerns, especially death. The bellboys who carry in the coffin of Madame Rosepettle's dead husband comically pull its handles off and drop it on the floor, and later, while Rosalie is attempting to seduce Jonathan, Rosepettle's corpse becomes a macabre Jack-in-the-box, interrupting the seduction by falling twice from the closet on top of the pair.
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