The semiotics and metapragmatics of humour in contemporary theatre

This study explores the semiotic boundaries of humour in theatre by examining Lena Kitsopoulou’s postmodern free adaptation of Aristophanes’ comedy Wasps. It discusses the interplay between theatrical aesthetics, the ethical dimensions of humour, artistic intent, and audience reception. In view of the multimodality of theatre, it applies a semiotic approach to the analysis of verbal and performance signs to demonstrate the Greek artist’s controversial and provocative humour. Considering humour to be a floating signifier as it “results from the unfixity introduced by a plurality of discourses” (Laclau, 2000, p. 305), I show that the plurality of theatrical humorous mechanisms and comedic forms employed in the playscript and on the stage resulted in the ambiguity of humour of Wasps. Furthermore, I demonstrate the fluidity of Kitsopoulou’s humour in view of the heated reception of the production, which divided critics and audiences alike. In view of the discussion of the reception of Kitsopoulou’s satire in the context of contemporary Greek society, the study views the role of online criticism and social media in the reception of contemporary theatre. Specifically, I focus on the metapragmatics of Wasps’ humour observing its polarised reception as evidenced in reviews, press articles and posts on social media. In this respect, I draw on research on the limits of humour and the metapragmatics of humorous discourse (Kramer, 2011; Tsakona, 2017), comic amusement and comic im/moralism (Carroll, 2014), as well as the ensuing negotiation between offensiveness and discriminatory humour in comedy (Pickering & Lockyer, 2005) to explore how humour is received in postmodern theatre..