[1] The phrase "Theatre of the Ridiculous" was created in 1965 by actor and director Ronald Tavel to describe his own work, which was later recognized as the beginning of the genre.
"[2] Theatre of the Ridiculous broke from the dominant trends in theater of naturalistic acting and realistic settings.
The genre employed a broad acting style, often with surrealistic stage settings and props, and frequently made a conscious effort to be shocking or disturbing.
[1] Prominent works from the genre include: The Play-House of the Ridiculous was a theatrical ensemble founded by John Vaccaro in the mid-1960s.
When these works were rejected by The Factory, Tavel decided to have them performed as plays, producing them together on a double-bill called "Theater of the Ridiculous".
[4][5] The Life of Lady Godiva, written by Ronald Tavel and directed by Vaccaro in 1967, was the first official production of the Play-House of the Ridiculous.
Vaccaro then directed a play written by Ludlam, Big Hotel, which opened in an East Village loft in February 1967.
David Kaufman, discussing Big Hotel, has said: "Various features of Ludlam's 28 subsequent works figure prominently in his first play.
Characters include Mata Hari, Trilby, Svengali and Santa Claus, and Ludlam acknowledged no fewer than 40 sources for Big Hotel - everything from ads and Hollywood films to literary classics, textbooks and essays.
[8] Vaccaro held the rights to Conquest of the Universe, and was able to perform it first, delaying the production of Ludlam's competing version (called When Queens Collide) for several months.
Vaccaro's Conquest of the Universe was performed at the Bouwerie Lane Theatre with many members of Andy Warhol's Factory, including Mary Woronov, Taylor Mead, Ondine, and Ultra Violet.
The Play-House of the Ridiculous was a resident company at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan.
"[10] Another perspective is that Ludlam's productions were too close to conventional comedy, while Vacarro's work was more challenging, emphasizing social commentary.
Ludlam discussed his role as the Emerald Empress in Bill Vehr's Whores of Babylon: Bill wrote this line in Whores of Babylon in which his character said to mine, "How well I understand that struggle in you between the warrior artist and the woman" – this was a wonderful self-revelation – and my line, he wrote, was "The woman?
Scott Miller cites the Play-House of the Ridiculous as a key source of "a performance style that only recently is becoming mainstream, a style described by Bat Boy's original director and co-author Keythe Farley as 'the height of expression, the depth of sincerity,' a kind of outrageous but utterly truthful acting.
"[10] Similarly, Childers has said: "John Vaccaro was a very difficult man to work with because he used anger to draw a performance out of a person.