By Thornton Wilder
Reprinted from The New York Times, January 8, 1939.
Surely highly civilized societies can never enjoy farce, farce which depends on extreme improbability and on the laughter aroused by the spectacle of someone's mental and physical anguish.
These long-lost twins that arrive in the same town; these girls dressed as boys that are not recognized by their closest friends; these deceived husbands under torment; these guardians beaten by mistake; these respectable and distraught ladies with men hidden all over their rooms.
Farce would seem to be intended for childlike minds still touched with grossness; but the history of the theater shows us that the opposite is true. Farce has always flourished in ages of refinement and great cultural activity.
And the reason lies where one would least expect it: farce is based on logic and objectivity.