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bunbury

The Skull and Daggers Theater group at San Diego State was putting on a play and needed a poster to advertise the play Bunbury: A Serious Play for Trivial People around campus. The catch was they needed a final poster delivered by the beginning of the following week!

After meeting with the client I went home and read the play in its entirety, word for word. The play followed the main character, Bunbury, as he went back into fictional works of literature and took the tragedy out of each piece. The play examined how changing works of art could possibly affect the larger society in general. In the play Bunbury's alterations affect the course of history, including JFK never being assassinated, yet many other things go wrong.

The play had many layers of interpretations and themes so producing this poster in a meaningful manner under a tight deadline was a welcome challenge. After reading through the play and marking some passages I decided to utilize the ubiquitous image of the Mona Lisa. I wanted to use something that would represent "art" to a wide population and the Mona Lisa is a universally recognized work of art. The Mona Lisa is also known for its gloomy, is she smiling, is she frowning mystery.

In the poster I had bunbury pushing the Mona Lisa's frown into an obvious grin. Thus Bunbury was taking the tragedy, or melancholy in the work of art and replacing it with a contrived happiness. I feel the poster effectively translatd the theme of the play in a fun and appealing image.