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Scenic rendering of this summer's production of THE BREASTS OF TIRESIAS by designer Cameron Anderson. |
Set in a town on the French Riviera , 1947. The French population has been decimated by WWII. The question is: should they have many more children to rebuild the population or should they choose to not have more children to avoid exposing them to the ravages of war and a violent society? Women who held down the home front while the men were on the front lines fighting, again find themselves frustrated at being objectified and having to return to the drudgery of housework.
The Theater Director opens the opera by setting the scene. Thérèse declares her feminist views to her husband (who is himself nameless), and her breasts – in the form of helium balloons – and other parts of her anatomy escape from her dress, leaving her in masculine clothing as Tirésias. Two locals, Lacouf and Presto, exit a café quarrelling. Violence ensues and soon both lie dead, commented on by Thérèse/Tirésias. Later in the scene, Lacouf and Presto revive. Meanwhile, Thérèse/Tirésias’ husband changes into feminine clothing. Immediately, he finds his hands tied and realizes the extreme limitations of being a woman in French society. He also attracts the amorous attentions of the Gendarme. Thérèse/Tirésias has become a deputy general and has drafted a proclamation decreeing “No more children!” The husband determines that he will create his own children through the
miracles of modern science! By the second half of the short work, the husband has had forty-thousand children (no, that number is not a typo – surreal theater need not be realistic). He boasts to a reporter that one of them has already written a best-selling novel. The reporter, sure that such a successful family would have money to spare, asks for a loan but is sent off. Meanwhile, the Gendarme complains about the town’s population explosion. A fortune teller who appears with advice on how to feed so many children is ultimately revealed to be Thérèse, back in her original form and apparently content to be a woman again. She and her husband are reunited and the entire company declares that those who made war must now make babies!
Synopses for the one-acts courtesy of Betsy Schwarm Glesner with edits from Director Ken Cazan.
