Teresa Picazo Gallego

Teatro inglés de los s. XIX y XX

12/01/06

ANALYSIS OF A THEATRE TREND: THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

According to Martin Esslin, a literary critic who coined the term of Theatre of the Absurd in 1962, he describes it “as a term to classify certain American and European playwriters who wrote in the 1950s as a response against the traditional concepts of Western Theatre”. (

The Theatre of the Absurd is characterised by plots that seem not to have meaning, by dialogues that recur, and by not having a dramatic sequence that often creates an oneiric atmosphere. It leaves its mark in almost every cult theatre, from the simplest to the most highly developed. This theatre goes beyond existentialist and dramatic personifications of philosophical approaches. In the world there is no logic and life is always threatened by death. ( ); (

It creates its own stage language as a voluntary and violent response against the “conventional” language of traditional theatre. A predominant factor of the Theatre of the Absurd is the character’s struggle to express themselves and the impossibility of attaining this objective. In this theatre, the stage often contradicts the words that are spoken by the actors. It only needs the objects, accessories and scenery that acquire an extraordinary importance. The Theatre of the Absurd’s scene almost always represents a world without sense, with heavy and annoying objects that end up dominating the characters. ( ).

The playwrights of this theatre movement really wanted to condemn how stupid human existence is. The Absurd’s authoris like a researcher to whom order, freedom, justice, psychology and language are only a series of consecutive approaches to an ambiguous and disappointing reality. ( ); (

This term applies, above all, to the theatre of Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Fernando Arrabal, the first plays of Arthur Adamov and Jean Genet. It is in the plays “Waiting for Godot” (S. Beckett) and “Rhinoceros” (Eugene Ionesco) where we can find the typical features of this theatre trend. These creators find their motivation in the play “The theatre and his double”, (1968), an Antonín Artaud’s play, while the comical features of this theatre has its roots in the films of Charles Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton. We could also say that roots can be found in the literature of non- sense of authors like Lewis Carroll, in the Strindberg’s dream-like plays and in the James Joyce and Frank Kafka plays. ( ).

EXPONENTS

Eugene Ionesco was the best writer of the Theatre of the Absurd. He was born in Romania and spent his childhood in Paris, and, although when he was thirteen he returned to his native country, in 1938 he came back to Paris to write. In the first Fine Art’s Festival in New York, Ionesco gave a meeting where he asked, “What is real after all?” (

He was a pessimistic man, but in his plays, he knew how to combine vital anguish with a brilliant sense of humour and surprising surrealistic notes. “Rhinoceros” (1959) is his best known play. The plot deals with the inhabitants of a small city that are turning into rhinoceros’, and the main character finds himself isolated while he is fighting againstconformity. ( ).

Ionesco wrote a theatre that did not try to be liked. He admitted that he was not afraid of his plays being disliked,nor was he afraid of going directly against the public. This was partly his insolence and partly his way of writing theatre. Both of them, his insolence and his way of writing theatre, shook the Western Theatre. ( ).

The Irish playwright, Samuel Beckett, is relatedwith the Theatre of the Absurd where tragedy and comedy collide in the sad illustration of the human condition and the absurdity of existence. His most notable play is “Waiting for Godot” (1952), with which the Irish writer established the genre that is the Theatre of the Absurd. This play reflects the isolation and the anguish of the individual, the pessimism and the loneliness of life with grotesque and irrational elements that broke with previous literary tradition. ( ).

Jean Genet was born in Paris. His plays reveal his confrontation against social conventions and a deep sympathy for the marginalised of society. He started to write in a French prison. His play “Les paravents” (1961) was a cause of scandal for the critics because it was opposed to the action of the French army in theAlgerian war. In 1985, Genet’s play “Le Balcon” was directed in the theatre by Georges Lavandant. It was a representation with which Genet entered into the world of comedy. (

Fernando Arrabal was a playwright who was born in Melilla, Spain. He was one of the most controversial personalities of his time, although hereceived great and international applause for his narrative, poetic, cinematographic and dramatic plays. Hundred of his theatrical plays were published in nineteen volumes. “La noche también es un sol”, “Jóvenes Bárbaros de hoy”, and “Las delicias de la carne” are some examples of these plays. His most famous play is “Carta al General Franco”, daringly written while Franco was still alive. (

Personal opinion

The most notable reason why I choseto analyse this genre of theatre is because most of the plays I have read this semester belong to this theatre movement. So, I already knew some of the features that characterise the Theatre of the Absurd but I wanted to go more deeply into it andfind out who were the best exponents.

The Theatre of the Absurdreally attracts my attention.This is why when I read a play that belongs to the genre, I realise that after having read a notable part of it, I cannot summariseexactly what I have read! The plays are so complicated and difficult to understand, but by having to think more and use your imagination it makes them more interesting. The best exponent of the genre is, in my view, Samuel Beckett, because of the techniques he uses to simplify his plays. The language he uses is colloquial, funny and therefore the audience can appreciate better the Theatre of the Absurd because they understand what the author is trying to say.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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