The Bald Soprano

Since The Bald Soprano is an “anti-play,” there is no formal protagonist in the piece whose perspective and experience drive the play forward. The characters Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the closest to traditional protagonists as they are the first two characters presented on stage and remain onstage for the majority of the drama. Since the play takes place in the home of this couple, we associate the world of this play with the world experienced by Mr. and Mrs. Smith. However, this is turned on its head at the end of the play when the actors who play the Martins replace the actors who play Smiths as the play begins again. The lack of developed characterization in the play—and how easily interchangeable the characters are—is all part of its absurdity. The characters are distilled into one-dimensional caricatures distinguished only by their names and their societal labels (and potentially by the different actors who play the characters).

The Smiths represent a well-to-do, married, traditional English couple. Mr. Smith is described as an “Englishman” wearing “English spectacles and a small gray English mustache” (8). His pastimes include smoking a pipe and reading the newspaper in his armchair.