Topic 13 - Shared knowledge and absurdist drama (Session B) > Getting to know Applicant > our comments

Getting to know Applicant

Our comments

The sketch begins as if it were an interview, but quickly ‘degenerates’ into something more like a psychological experiment and then a torture and interrogation session. Then, at the very end the situation is suddenly changed back to interview mode. The changes are all instigated by Miss Piffs, who seems to need to dominate the interviewee, Mr Lamb, throughout. She doesn’t seem at all interested in finding out Mr Lamb’s views or what he can do, but effectively humiliates and tortures him. Much of what she talks about after the first part of the sketch has to do with women or male/female relations. So the sketch looks like an early absurdist take on gender relations, where male and female roles are dramatically reversed. Some of the questions Miss Piffs asks are also rather strange, and will need to be explored to see why they are absurd.

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