The Balcony A Play Author:Jean Genet Genet's horrifying vision in *The Balcony* has aroused violent controversy. When it was produced at a private club in London, Kenneth Tynan called it "a theatrical experience as startling as anything since Ibsen's revelation that there was such a thing as syphilis." As a book, it is as electrifying to read as it is to watch. — The setting is a br... more »othel in the midst of a revolution that has wiped out all the real holders of power except the Chief of Police, who now enlists the regular customers to play out the fantasy roles that destiny has denied them. The man from the gas company garbs himself as a bishop; a bank clerk defiles the Virgin Mary; another customer becomes a flagellant judge, and another a victorious general. In a series of macabre, climactic scenes, the playwright develops his mocking view of man and society.« less