Fando
and Lis (Fando et Lis) — 1955 by Fernando
Arrabal: Key Facts
Full
Title: Fando et Lis (Spanish: Fando y Lis;
English: Fando and Lis).
Author: Fernando
Arrabal, Spanish-born playwright, novelist, poet, filmmaker, and artist.
Type
of Work: A one-act experimental play, written in five
scenes. It is an early work in Arrabal's theatrical career and is associated
with his developing Theatre of Panic (Panic Theatre) as well as the
Theatre of the Absurd.
Genre: Theatre
of the Absurd, with strong elements of surrealism, grotesque comedy, tragic
drama, cruelty, fantasy, and dreamlike theatre. Arrabal's theatre deliberately
disrupts conventional cause-and-effect plotting and realistic dramatic
development.
Language: Spanish
in its original form. Arrabal wrote Fando y Lis in Spanish; the work was
subsequently published and performed in French as Fando et Lis. The
French-language edition appeared in Julliard's Théâtre collection in
1958.
Time
and Place Written: 1955, Madrid and Paris. The surviving
manuscript/text tradition identifies November–December 1955 and gives Madrid
and Paris in connection with the work.
Date
of First Publication: 1958 in French, as part of Arrabal's Théâtre,
published by Julliard in Paris. The Bibliothèque nationale de France
records the 1958 volume containing Oraison, Les Deux Bourreaux, Fando
et Lis, and Le Cimetière des voitures.
Publisher: René
Julliard / Julliard, Paris, for the 1958 French publication.
Tone: The
tone is grotesque, disturbing, tragic, absurd, violent, dreamlike, darkly
comic, and at times tender. Arrabal repeatedly places affection beside
cruelty, comedy beside suffering, and ordinary behaviour beside bizarre or
shocking situations.
Setting
— Time: The play does not establish a precise historical period.
Its action takes place in an indeterminate, almost timeless present,
which contributes to its dreamlike and absurd quality. The characters' memories
also bring elements of the past into the present action.
Setting
— Place: The principal setting is an indeterminate landscape
or road through which Fando and Lis travel toward the mysterious city of Tar.
The environment is not presented as a realistic geographical location. Instead,
it resembles a strange, symbolic, dreamlike world in which the characters
repeatedly become lost and return to similar situations.
Protagonists: Fando
and Lis. The play is centred on their relationship and their journey toward
Tar. Fando pushes Lis, whose legs are paralysed, in a large pram or cart.
Major
Conflict: The major conflict arises from Fando and Lis's
troubled relationship and their unsuccessful attempt to reach Tar. They
depend upon each other, yet their relationship is marked by affection,
frustration, cruelty, violence, and emotional instability. Their physical
journey toward Tar is continually obstructed, while their psychological and
emotional conflicts prevent them from finding freedom or fulfilment.
Rising
Action: Fando and Lis continue their difficult journey toward
Tar. Their conversations reveal their dependence upon each other and Fando's
troubled memories. They encounter three men—Namur, Mitaro, and Toso—and
become involved in increasingly strange and disturbing situations. Their hopes
of reaching Tar remain alive, but their relationship becomes progressively more
unstable.
Climax: The
climax occurs when Fando's destructive behaviour toward Lis reaches its most
extreme point, resulting in the destruction of their relationship and Lis's
death. The journey that began as a shared search for Tar ends in catastrophe.
Falling
Action: Following the destruction of Lis, Fando is left without
the companion who has travelled with him throughout the play. The hoped-for
journey to Tar remains unresolved. The ending leaves the audience with the
consequences of violence, loss, and the failure of the characters' search.
Themes: The
major themes include the search for meaning, the absurdity and futility of
existence, love and dependence, cruelty and violence, suffering, vulnerability,
hope and disillusionment, isolation, failed communication, memory, entrapment,
and the impossibility of escape.
Motifs:
Important recurring motifs include journeying, waiting, repetition, movement
and immobility, memory, storytelling, dependence, physical suffering, violence,
companionship, and the repeated desire to reach Tar. The recurring return
to similar situations is particularly important because Arrabal's dramaturgy
often denies the characters a straightforward progression toward resolution.
Symbols: The
principal symbols include Tar, representing an elusive ideal or
hoped-for destination; the journey, representing the human search for
fulfilment; Lis's cart, representing dependence, burden, and restricted
movement; the road, representing an uncertain existence; and physical
immobility, representing the characters' inability to escape their
circumstances.
Foreshadowing: The
play contains repeated indications of the tragic ending. Fando's
unpredictable cruelty toward Lis, the unequal dependence between them, their
recurring conflicts, and the increasingly violent atmosphere anticipate the
final destruction of their relationship. The association of love with
suffering, death, and violence is established well before the conclusion,
making the ending horrifying but consistent with the pattern that has developed
throughout the play.
Important
publication note: Although the play is generally dated 1955,
it was not first published as a separate 1955 book. The French text Fando et
Lis appeared in 1958 in Julliard's Théâtre collection.
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