THIRD PAPER: THE ABSURD THEATRE
This genre of theatre appeared more or less after of the Second World War about 1940, 1950 in Paris. But also emerged in the rest of Europe and the United States. Among other genres, it was the most popular genre that was not realist in the 20th century. This theatre came about as a consequence of the Second World War. It was undoubtedly strongly influenced by the traumatic experience of the horrors of the Second World War, so in this time people were very disappointed with the unjustness of the world. It was at its peak in the 1950s. (“Msn Encarta on line, the Literary Encyclopedia on line”)
This term “absurd”, has its origin in the philosophic use that the existentialist thinkers did, such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. The critic Esslin give his name “theatre of the absurd” from Albert Camus’s philosophical book The Myth of Sisyphus. In it Camus says that there is a separation between “the man and his life, the actor and his setting”, and that this separation “constitutes the feeling of Absurdity”. And also this term is considered such as alternative of the term anti-théâtre o nouveau theatre. As I told before, it took the basis of existential philosophy and furthermore, combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which show us a world which cannot be logically explained, in other words, we cannot give a rational argument. (“Microsoft Encarta 2001, the Literary Encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.org, http://www. britannicca.com 7-12-2005”)
Let us explain some of its characteristics. (“Microsoft Encarta 2001, the Literary Encyclopedia, www.wikipedia.org, http://www.britannicca.com 7-12-2005”) The first characteristic is that it is difficult to understand and we spend quite some time to do it since it uses techniques that seem to be illogical.
Another characteristic is that the plots often separate from the traditional structure, and seem to be circular, ending the same way it begin. For instance, in Waiting For Godot, Samuel Becket’s play.
The third, the scenery is often unrecognizable, and to make matters worse. In it the things can be quite important until that they play characters down, or on other hand, can be there nothing.
Sometimes the play’s titles can have nothing to do with the play itself.
The dialogue never seems to make any sense. Such as in Waiting For Godot, the Lucky’s speech pages 42, 43, 44: “Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattman of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside the time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia love us early with some exceptions for reasons unknown (…) Connemara in spite of the tennis the labours abandoned left unfinished graver still abode of stones in a word I resume alas alas abandoned unfinished the skull the skull in Conmemara in spite of the tennis the skull alas the stones Cunard tennis…the stones… so calm… Cunard …. Unfinished…” . Sentences do not follow any sequence, they have no order, there are repetitions, and words do not mean what we expect them to mean. And also the language used by the playwright is informal, with colloquial style and incoherent.
The characters can have a change in themselves, it can be a change in their sex, in their personality, and in their individual's social standing, and also they have something ridiculous within their actions.
And finally, the last characteristic is that some plays can be considerably comical and with much irony. And therefore almost all the plays have the same goal, to show us the reality but on its way.
The more representative absurd playwrights are Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Eugene Ionesco. Samuel Beckett is probably the most best known of absurd playwrights because of his work Waiting For Godot, it talks about a couple of men that are waiting for one man, Godot, who does not come. However, Harold Pinter is now the leading English language playwright in this genre, he wrote among other plays Party Time, Ashes to Ashes and The Dumb Waiter.
(“Microsoft Encarta 2001, http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/ent/A0816070.html 7-12-2005”)
References:
Microsoft Encarta, 2001
Msn Encarta on line
Waiting for Godot, 1996, Faber and Faber.
Google:
The Literary Dictionary Company…
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/ent/A0816070.html
Literary Encyclopedia on line
http://www.britannicca.com