ABSURD THEATRE, A POSTWAR PERIOD THEATRE:
I am going to talk about a cultural movement called `the absurd theatre´. I am going to use quotes in order to explain this movement.
`In the fifties, the main worry isn´t the obsession about the horror of the hungry, the dead or the exile, as in the case of Spanish writers. In spite of all, British writers didn´t forget the social situation of their country, and the theatre was the suitable instrument to denounce it. In the United Estates, a group of authors renounced to follow the style and the rules that allowed the success at New York Broadway theatres and they used new styles: thus the experimental theatre appeared. In Spain, in spite of the censorship, dramatics of fifties tried to be critical with the sad, grey and hypocritical society of the postwar period. European and American dramatist, under the tiredness of imitating or being inspired by old styles, tried to separate for any logical attitude: thus the absurd theatre appeared taking like principal point the absurd things of the life´. ( “Teatro del Absurdo; El período de posguerra”. Volumen 10, Literatura. Activa Multimedia. Enciclopedia de consulta).
`Absurd theatre, which belongs to the postwar period theatre, is a generic term used by the critic Martin Esslin in 1962 in order to classify some dramatist who wrote in the fifties and whose work was like a reaction against typical concepts of the western theatre(…) This term is an alternative to the term of “anti-théâtre” or “noveau théâtre”(…) Absurd theatre and the other postwar period theatres have one thing in common: The widespread denial of the realist theatre´.( “ Teatro del Absurdo” Encarta 2006. 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos loa derechos).
The climax of the absurd theatre was in the fifties, but it continued far away than seventies.
One of the most important authors of the absurd theatre is Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), who was a poet, novelist and distinguished dramatist of the absurd theatre:
`In his novels and in his plays, he bases his attention on the human condition, which is reduced to the solitary I or to the nowhere. He created a prose disciplined and austere, with corrosive humour and accompanied of the use of slang. He tries to avoid logical and coherent arguments and the behaviour of his characters isn´t justified by the reason(…)Humans have lost their horizons and the history of the civilization has taken only to loneliness and to destruction. This ending so absurd only may be represented by a absurd theatre. Waiting for Godot is his most important play and it is a clear example of absurd theatre.´(…) `The scorn for the British society, lacking ideals and unhappiness, lead to strong social criticism´.( “Samuel Beckett” Microsoft Encarta 2006. 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos los derechos).
The best examples of this social criticism are, amongst others plays, some of Harold Pinter plays. Pinter ( 1930-) is a British dramatist whose plays are approximated, also, to the absurd theatre. `His characters try to communicate to establish good relationships in their lives, which are similar , but always fail because their dialogues present difficulties. Pinter ´s plays are absurd and dark but they are realist, in the point of view of the author, because they represent the daily life´. ( “ Harold Pinter” Microsoft Encarta 2006. 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos los derechos).
Definitely, authors of this kind of theatre forget that life have a sense and create characters who lose the notion of time and say contradictory things.
`The theatre of Eugène Ionesco, Fernando Arrabal, Arthur Adamov , Jean Genet, and films of Charles Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Buster Keaton, etc reflect, all of them the absurd theatre´. (“ Teatro del Absurdo”. Microsoft Encarta 2006. 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos los derechos).
Bibliography:
Microsoft Encarta 2006. 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos los derechos.
Activa Multimedia. Enciclopedia de Consulta.
Ana Calatayud Moreno
Teatro inglés de los S. XIX –XX
12-1-2006
3rd PAPER
