Any form of theatrical art is often evaluated on three factors: the setting, the actors’ performances and, perhaps most importantly, how well it conveys its message to the audience.
The 1996 Japanese play University of Laughs easily fulfills all three components in a fast-paced plot. Originally began in the late 1990s in Japan with the title Warai no Daigaku, Mitani Koki’s play has also been adapted into film in 2004. The hit play, held on campus as part of the KAIST Fall Culture Festival, features two characters: a police censor working for the government (Seok-hwan Ahn) and an anxious playwright (Won-gil Baek) in the 1940s – a difficult time for Japan after World War II.
It begins with the apprehensive playwright working for a theater called the University of Laughs. Seeking to get his play approved for showing, he visits the government censor whose job is to decide whether the script is appropriate for the public. The duo immediately launches a psychological warfare with the pedantic censor frantically trying to delete any scene that may trigger even the tiniest grin, while the young playwright attempts to bring as much laughter to his audience as possible.
The first few visits end fruitlessly for the playwright; the obstinate censor disapproves of every page of the script and declares that preposterous adjustments be made. Even after a series of desperate pleas from the writer, the censor remains unyielding: the script contains way too much humor for his liking and thus will not be permissible, end of story.
Determined to get his latest play approved for performance, the playwright continues imploring at the censor’s office, only to accommodate the censor’s ridiculous demands and revisions, pleading the approval of his play. The playwright ends up making absurd changes to the script such as eliminating all lip-locking from a scene based on William Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet.
Ironically, the censor soon finds himself hooked in the revised play and finalizes the script along with the playwright. With unintended help from the censor, the playwright completes a script that is perhaps much more valuable and humorous than his original work. The synergy between the two men ensures the playwright’s completion of his original mission: to create a comical play that people can laugh out loud at. With the finalized script in their hands, the two men come to respect each other.
Moreover, the censor himself grows throughout the play from a stubborn, uncompromising pusher into a hero of the poignant end scene. By the time he sends off the young writer to the national army, the censor has transformed into a character who finally understands the role and meaning of laughter.
Last but not least, the impressive stage set-up is not to be missed. The old-fashioned calendar hanging on the wall and the pile of scripts allow us to instantly estimate the play’s setting. Whether you are in dire need of laughter or simply craving self-chuckling, the repartee in the quick-witted play will successfully entertain the audience.
In essence, University of Laughs is an unpretentious, two-person running gag dedicated to anyone who enjoys laughter. The 100-plus-minute show of the young playwright and the hardheaded government censor is a series of verbal quarrels but continuously triggers bursts of laughter in the audience. The two men in show brim with witty banter on perfect tempo, neither ever missing a beat.
They say laughter is contagious. Perhaps the message Koki tried to convey through this play is that laughter should not be suppressed, whether it is by a government censor or your own ability.