The Gas Heart: The Dada Anti-Masterpiece of Drama (2025)

"...this is the only and the biggest fraud of the century-in three acts. It will bring joy only to industrialized imbeciles who believe in the existence of geniuses."

"The void drinks the void: the air has arrived with its blue eyes, and that is why it is always taking cachets of aspirin."

"Your eyes are pebbles because they see nothing except the rain and the cold."

EYE: Imagine, dear friend, that I no longer love someone.
EAR: But of whom do you speak?
EYE: I speak of her whom I once loved a lot.

Tristan Tzara invented shitposting, and I love it.

Yes, I am currently taking a class in grad school called “War and the Avant-Garde,” and this was mandatory reading for said class — but coincidentally, for personal reasons, Dadaist literature is really hitting the spot right now. lol.

FUCK YEAAAAAH
I want to stage this so badly.

This was definitely not a very usual read. I thought that after "Waiting for Godot" I'll never read anything so absurd again. However, Gas Heart exceeded my expectations. It's absurd pur, nothing in it has sense. Very in the spirit of Dadaism. One should see this play not in the sense of theatre and acting, but in the sense of playing with the language, "boxing" with words, dancing with them, inventing new ones. Tristan Tzara was called "crazy Rumanian" among his friends and this play clearly explains why =)

"I don't mean to say anything. A long time ago I put everything I had to say into a hatbox. " - Mouth

Mindless babble intended as a troll on the theater, nothing more. A waste of an hour to read. The opening note declares this to be the biggest fraud of the century and instructs the actors to treat the author with no respect, noting that the script brings no technical innovations to the theater.

I take the author at his word.

The more entertaining story is the first performance, which seemed designed to purposely provoke and anger certain writers in Tzara’s clique, which it did. Breton rushed the stage, beat the actors and writers with his walking stick, and broke Massot’s arm in the process. The police were called and arrests were made. Reading about the first performance is far more enjoyable than reading the play.

This was a very interesting work, and hard to wrap my head around at first. A great introduction to avant-garde drama, and definitely does a great job at undoing all the standard dramatic elements. Very interesting text, and I’ll be working to better understand its context (and try to understand its material less).

what the hell did I just read

Kinda interesting. A few good lines but this is not the kinda play to take seriously.

Dada art? Yes please. Dada theatre? Sorry, pass.

From his padded cell, Bonkers the clown gives it 5ive goldfish stars.

Tangerine and White from Spain
I’m killing myself Madeleine Madeleine

Nothing makes sense in the face of war. (as if I knew) Returning from the muddy trenches, perhaps without a nose, or a leg, or the lower jaw, or the basic human ability to connect. (as if I knew) Finding your hometown blurred, wrapped in ethanol vapours, short skirts and endless, dissociated fun. A mouth talks, an eye stares, and nothing reaches. Nothing connects.

Tangerine and white from Spain / I'm killing myself Madeleine Madeleine.

"If this is what war does to people, why the fuck do we keep doing it."

Sorry folks but I didn’t get it. Well I get that it’s taking the piss but I probs don’t know enough about what it’s taking the piss out of, and also I would imagine it would be better to see it as a play actually being performed (duh) rather than reading it off my laptop.

dadaism is funny

Would like to see it preformed, but in reading I did not find much meaning except that anyone can write anything or something.

Whether unquotable or entirely quotable.

I love the Dada star anyway.