Freud Was Right/Theatre

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Freud Was Right in Theatre include:

  • Once upon a time, some guy decided to do a production of Shakespeare's classic play Hamlet with some seriously Oedipal subtext thrown in. Through a combination of Popcultural Osmosis and Mel Gibson, this is now frequently considered to be the official, canonical "true meaning" of Hamlet. A careful examination of the script will not yield a single quote to support this interpretation. In fact, Hamlet shows more signs of an Electra Complex. Now that would be an interesting production...
    • Actually, the latter is the interpretation favored by both Freud himself and Joseph Campbell. "All neurotics," Freud said, "Are either Oedipus or Hamlet." (Italics added.)
  • The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) includes this line, whose context is better left unexplained:

"Yes, and then they discover that the talking ponies are just a phallic extension of a woman's desire for sexual domination, and when they get home their mother says Freud was right...!"

  • Regarding Der Rosenkavalier, it has often been observed that the prelude reaches its climax (with horns blasting) before the music is ready to cadence. As the prelude subsides, the curtain opens on Octavian and the Marschallin in bed.
  • The Book of Mormon turns a song about baptism into the play's love scene. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are masters of this trope.

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