THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

According to the wikipedia encyclopedy,The Theatre of the Absurd, is a concept used in reference to particular plays written by a number of European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. The term was coined by the critic Martin Esslin. Esslin saw the work of these playwrights as giving artistic articulation to Albert Camus' philosophy that life is inherently without meaning, as illustrated in his work The Myth of Sisyphus.

“A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity” (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus)

The “Theatre of the Absurd” is thought to have its origins in Nanoism, nonsense poetry and avant-garde art of the 1920's - 1930's. However, this genre of theatre accomplished its eventual popularity when World War II highlighted the ultimate precariousness of human life. The expression "Theatre of the Absurd" has been criticized by some writers, and one also finds the expressions "Anti-Theatre" and "New Theatre".

According to Martin Esslin, the four defining playwrights of the movement are Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Arthur Adamov, although each of these writers has entirely unique preoccupations and techniques that go beyond the term "absurd". Other writers often associated with this group include Tom Stoppard, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Fernando Arrabal, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee and Jean Tardieu.

The "Absurd" or "New Theatre" movement was, in its origin, a distinctly Paris-based avant-garde phenomenon tied to extremely small theaters in the Quartier Latin; the movement only gained international prominence over time.

The Theatre of the Absurd departs from realistic characters, situations and all of the associated theatrical conventions. Time, place and identity are ambiguous and fluid, and even basic causality frequently breaks down. Meaningless plots, repetitive or nonsensical dialogue and dramatic non-sequiturs are often used to create dream-like, or even nightmare-like moods.

An example of a play based the trend of the absurd theatre, is the play Waiting For Godot, an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett written too in the late 1940s and translation in English by Beckett himself, and published in 1955.

The play is in two acts, and in both of them the tramps Vladimir and Estragon wait in vain by the roadside for Godot, with whom they have an appointment, although it isn’t sure. As Beckett says: “The key word in my play is “perhaps”.

The audience never learns who Godot is or the nature of the business they expect to transact with him. In each act the cruel Pozzo and his slave Lucky turn up followed by a boy who gives Vladimir and Estragon the message that Godot will not come today "but surely tomorrow". This intentionally uneventful and repetitious plot symbolizes the tedium and meaninglessness of human life which is a common theme of existentialism. A common interpretation of the mysteriously absent Godot is that he represents God, though Beckett always denied this.

As Martin Esslin has written, “if an artist in despair, such as Beckett, finds that at the core of existence there is nothing, then the very act of saying so contains the artist’s and the world’s redemption”.

I think that absurd theatre tries to show the importance of myth. Theatre of the absurd is surreal, illogical, conflictless and plotless, but I think that it is this mythical sense which attracts people to read it. This phrase of the playwright Eugène Ionesco might help us to understand the ideology of the absurd theatre: “Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together”.