The Theatre of the Absurd (French: "Le Théâtre de l'Absurde") is a designation for particular plays written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949. ... The 1950s decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969. ...

The term was coined by the critic Martin Esslin, who made it the title of a book on the subject first published in 1961 and in two later revised editions; the third and final edition appeared in 2004, in paperback with a new foreword by the author. In the first edition of The Theatre of the Absurd, 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. Though the term is applied to a wide range of plays, some characteristics coincide in many of the plays: broad comedy, often similar to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the "well-made play". In the first (1961) edition, Esslin presented the four defining playwrights of the movement as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco, and Jean Genet, and in subsequent editions he added a fifth playwright, Harold Pinter - although each of these writers has unique preoccupations and techniques that go beyond the term "absurd."^[1][2] Other writers whom Esslin associated with this group include Tom Stoppard, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Fernando Arrabal, Edward Albee, and Jean Tardieu.^[1][2] Martin Julius Esslin (born Julius Pereszlenyi on June 6, 1918–died February 24, 2002) was a Hungarian born English playwright and critic best known for coining the term the theatre of the absurd in his work of that name (1962). ... For other uses, see Camus. ... Sisyphus by Titian, 1549 The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. ... This article is about the Irish writer. ... Arthur Adamov (1908 - 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. ... Eugène Ionesco (Romanian spelling: Eugen Ionescu) (November 26, 1912 - March 28, 1994) was one of the foremost playwrights of the theater of the absurd. ... Jean Genet (French IPA: ) (December 19, 1910) – April 15, 1986), was a prominent, controversial French writer and later political activist. ... Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born 10 October 1930) is an English playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist. ... Sir Tom Stoppard, OM, CBE (born as Tomáš Straussler on July 3, 1937)[1] is an Academy Award winning British playwright of more than 24 plays. ... Friedrich Dürrenmatt (January 5, 1921 – December 14, 1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Edward Franklin Albee III (born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright known for works including Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, The Sandbox and The American Dream. ... Jean Tardieu (born in St Germain de Joux, France November 1, 1903, died in Créteil, France January 27, 1995) was an artist, musician, poet and dramatic author. ...

Significant precursors

Though the label "Theatre of the Absurd" covers a wide variety of playwrights with differing styles, they do have some common stylistic precursors (Esslin [1961]).

Tragicomedy

The mode of most "absurdist" plays is tragicomedy.^{[citations needed]} Besides his multifaceted influence in other areas, Esslin cites William Shakespeare, the first great playwright to use tragicomedy,^{[citations needed]}, as an influence on the "Absurd drama."^{[citations needed]} Shakespeare's influence is acknowledged directly in the titles of Ionesco's Macbett and Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Though layered with a significant amount of tragedy, the Theatre of the Absurd echoes other great forms of comedic performance, according to Esslin, from Commedia dell'arte to Vaudeville.^{[citations needed]} Similarly, Esslin cites early film comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, and Buster Keaton as direct influences (Keaton even starred in Beckett's Film in 1965).^{[citations needed]} Tragicomedy refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Macbett is Eugene Ionescos satire on Shakespeares MacBeth. ... Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a humorous, absurdist, tragic and existentialist play by Tom Stoppard, first staged in 1966. ... Commedia redirects here. ... This article is about the musical variety theatre. ... Charles Chaplin redirects here. ... Laurel and Hardy, in a promotional still from their 1937 feature film Way Out West. ... See Marx brothers (fencing) for the 16th century German brotherhood. ... Joseph Frank Buster Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an Academy Award-winning American comic actor and filmmaker. ... Film is a film written by Samuel Beckett, his only screenplay. ...

Formal experimentation

As an experimental form of theatre, Theatre of the Absurd employs techniques borrowed from earlier innovators. Writers and techniques frequently mentioned in relation to the Absurdists include the following: 19th century nonsense poets like Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear; Polish playwright Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz; the Russian Absurdists, Daniil Kharms, Nikolai Erdman and so on; Bertholt Brecht's distancing techniques in his "Epic Theatre"; and the "dream plays" of August Strindberg.^[1] The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (IPA: ) (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll (), was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... Edward Lear, 1812-1888 Eagle Owl, Edward Lear, 1837 Another Edward Lear owl, in his more familiar style Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and his limericks, a form which he popularised. ... Self-portrait of Witkacy, 1938 StanisÅ‚aw Ignacy Witkiewicz, a. ... Daniil Kharms Daniil Kharms (Russian: ) (30 December 1905/Gregorian calendar: 12 January 1906 - 2 February 1942) was an early Soviet-era satirist who used a surrealist or absurdist style. ... Nikolai Erdman in the 1920s. ... Bertolt Brecht (February 10, 1898 _ August 14, 1956) was an influential German dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century. ...   (January 22, 1849 â€“ May 14, 1912) was a Swedish writer, playwright, and painter. ...

One commonly cited precursor is Luigi Pirandello, especially Six Characters in Search of an Author. Pirandello was a highly regarded theatrical experimentalist who wanted to bring down the fourth wall utilized by Realism and playwrights like Henrik Ibsen (Jacobus). According to W. B. Worthen, Six Characters, and other Pirandello plays, use "Metatheater—roleplaying, plays-within-plays, and a flexible sense of the limits of stage and illusion—to examine a highly theatricalized vision of identity" (702). Luigi Pirandello (June 28, 1867 – December 10, 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934. ... Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca dautore) is the most famous play of Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. ... Ibsen redirects here. ...

Another influential playwright was Guillaume Apollinaire whose Les Mamelles de Tirésias was the first work to be called "surreal."^{[citations needed]} Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a poet, writer, and art critic. ... Les Mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias) is a two act opera by Francis Poulenc based on a text by Guillaume Apollinaire. ...

Pataphysics, Dadaism, and Surrealism

One of the most significant common precursors is Alfred Jarry whose wild, irreverent, and lascivious Ubu plays scandalized Paris in the 1890's. Likewise, the concept of 'Pataphysics–"the science of imaginary solutions"–first presented in Jarry's Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien (Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician) was inspirational to many later Absurdists, some of whom joined the Collège de 'pataphysique founded in honor of Jarry in 1948 (both Ionesco and Arrabal were given the title Transcendent Satrape of the Collège de 'pataphysique). The Alfred Jarry Theatre, founded by Antonin Artaud and Roger Vitrac, housed several Absurdist plays, including ones by Ionesco and Adamov.^[1] Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (September 8, 1873 – November 1, 1907) was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mothers side. ... Pataphysics, a term coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. ... Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (born September 4, 1896, in Marseille; died March 4, 1948 in Paris) was a French playwright, poet, actor and director. ... Roger Vitrac (1899–1952) was a French surrealist playwright and poet. ...

Artaud's "The Theatre of Cruelty" (presented in The Theatre and Its Double) was a particularly important philosophical treatise. Artaud claimed theatre's reliance on literature was inadequate and that the true power of theatre was in its visceral impact.^{[citations needed]} Artaud was a Surrealist, and many other members of the Surrealist group were significant influences on the Absurdists.^{[citations needed]} The Theatre of Cruelty is a concept in Antonin Artauds book Theatre and its Double. ... Theatre and its double (Le Théâtre et son Double) is a book written by Antonin Artaud. ... Max Ernst. ...

Absurdism is also frequently compared to Surrealism's predecessor, Dadaism (for example, the Dadaist plays by Tristan Tzara performed at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich). Many of the Absurdists had direct connections with the Dadaists and Surrealists. Ionesco, Beckett, Adamov, and Arrabal for example, were friends with Surrealists still living in Paris at the time including Andre Breton, the founder of Surrealism, and Beckett translated many Surrealist poems by Breton and others from French into English (Knowlson). Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ... Tristan Tzara () (April 16, 1896 – December 25, 1963) was a Romanian poet and essayist. ... Cabaret Voltaire can mean: Cabaret Voltaire (band), a British industrial/techno musical group Cabaret Voltaire (painting), a 1916 painting by Marcel Janco Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich), a Swiss cabaret founded in 1916, distinguished by the involvement of Dada and his artistic works Cabaret Voltaire (club), the legendary Houston punk club... Andr Breton (February 18, 1896 - September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and Surrealist theoretician. ...

Relationship with Existentialism

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The Theatre of the Absurd is commonly associated with Existentialism, and Existentialism was an influential philosophy in Paris during the rise of the Theatre of the Absurd; however, to call it Existentialist theatre is problematic for many reasons. It gained this association partly because it was named (by Esslin) after the concept of "absurdism" advocated by Albert Camus, a philosopher commonly called Existentialist though he frequently resisted that label. Absurdism is most accurately called Existentialist in the way Franz Kafka's work is labeled Existentialist: it embodies an aspect of the philosophy though the writer may not be a committed follower. Many of the Absurdists were contemporaries with Jean-Paul Sartre, the philosophical spokesman for Existentialism in Paris, but few Absurdists actually committed to Sartre's own Existentialist philosophy, as expressed in Being and Nothingness, and many of the Absurdists had a complicated relationship with him. Sartre praised Genet's plays, stating that for Genet "Good is only an illusion. Evil is a Nothingness which arises upon the ruins of Good" ("Introduction" ); but Sartre and Ionesco were still at times bitter enemies.^{[citations needed]} Ionesco accused Sartre of supporting Communism but ignoring the atrocities committed by Communists; he wrote Rhinoceros as a criticism of blind conformity, whether it be to Nazism or Communism; at the end of the play, one man remains on Earth resisting transformation into a rhinoceros (Ionesco, Fragments). Sartre criticized Rhinoceros by questioning: "Why is there one man who resists? At least we could learn why, but no, we learn not even that. He resists because he is there" ("Beyond Bourgeois Theatre" 6). Sartre's criticism highlights a primary difference between the Theatre of the Absurd and Existentialism: The Theatre of the Absurd shows the failure of man without recommending a solution.^{[citations needed]} Samuel Beckett's primary focus was on the failure of man to overcome "absurdity"; as James Knowlson says in Damned to Fame, Beckett's work focuses "on poverty, failure, exile and loss — as he put it, on man as a 'non-knower' and as a 'non-can-er' ." Beckett's own relationship with Sartre was complicated by a mistake made in the publication of one of his stories in Sartre's journal Les Temps Modernes.^{[citations needed]} Existentialism is a philosophical movement that posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating it for them. ... For other uses, see Camus. ... Kafka redirects here. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology (1943) is a philosophical treatise by Jean-Paul Sartre that is regarded as the beginning of the growth of existentialism in the 20th century. ... Rhinoceros, performed by Naqshineh Theatre. ... This article is about the Irish writer. ... Les Temps Modernes was a political, literary and philosophical French magazine founded in 1945 by Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Raymond Aron. ...

History

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The "Absurd" or "New Theater" movement was originally a Paris-based (and Rive Gauche) avant-garde phenomenon tied to extremely small theaters in the Quartier Latin. Some of the Absurdists were born in France such as Jean Genet, Jean Tardieu, Boris Vian, and Romain Weingarten. Many other Absurdists were born elsewhere but lived in France, writing often in French: Samuel Beckett from Ireland; Eugene Ionesco from Romania; Arthur Adamov from Russia; and Fernando Arrabal from Spain. As the influence of the Absurdists grew, the style spread to other countries–with playwrights either directly influenced by Absurdists in Paris or playwrights labeled Absurdist by critics. In England some of whom Esslin considered practitioners of "the Theatre of the Absurd" include: Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, N. F. Simpson, James Saunders, and David Campton; in the United States, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Jack Gelber, and John Guare; in Poland, Tadeusz Różewicz, Sławomir Mrożek, and Tadeusz Kantor; in Italy, Dino Buzzati and Ezio d'Errico; and in Germany, Peter Weiss, Wolfgang Hildesheimer, and Günter Grass. In India, both Mohit Chattopadhyay and Mahesh Elkunchwar have also been labeled Absurdists. Other international Absurdist playwrights include: Tawfiq el-Hakim from Egypt; Miguel Mihura from Spain; José de Almada Negreiros from Portugal; Yordan Radichkov from Bulgaria; and playwright and former Czech President Václav Havel, and others from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.^{[citations needed]} For the musical group, see Left Banke. ... The Quartier Latin (Latin Quarter) is an area in the 5th arrondissement and parts of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, on the left bank (south side) of the Seine, around the Sorbonne University. ... Jean Genet (French IPA: ) (December 19, 1910) – April 15, 1986), was a prominent, controversial French writer and later political activist. ... Jean Tardieu (born in St Germain de Joux, France November 1, 1903, died in Créteil, France January 27, 1995) was an artist, musician, poet and dramatic author. ... Boris Vian (March 10, 1920 – June 23, 1959) was a French writer, poet, singer, and musician, who also wrote under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan. ... Romain Weingarten is a French playwright. ... This article is about the Irish writer. ... Eugène Ionesco (Romanian spelling: Eugen Ionescu) (November 26, 1912 - March 28, 1994) was one of the foremost playwrights of the theater of the absurd. ... Arthur Adamov (1908 - 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born 10 October 1930) is an English playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist. ... Sir Tom Stoppard, OM, CBE (born as Tomáš Straussler on July 3, 1937)[1] is an Academy Award winning British playwright of more than 24 plays. ... People called James Saunders: James Saunders (cricketer) (1802-1832): English cricketer James Saunders (playwright) (1925-2004): English playwright Category: ... David Campton (June 5, 1924–September 9, 2006) was a prolific British dramatist who wrote plays for the stage, radio, and cinema for thirty-five years. ... Edward Franklin Albee III (born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright known for works including Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, The Sandbox and The American Dream. ... Sam Shepard (born November 5, 1943) is a unique American artist whose talents have been expressed in many different areas. ... ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ... John Guare (pronounced gwâr, born 5 February 1938) is an American playwright. ... Tadeusz Różewicz and Günter Grass, 2006 Tadeusz Różewicz (b. ... SÅ‚awomir Mrożek, Warsaw (Poland), 20. ... Tadeusz Kantor (April 6, 1915 – December 8, 1990) was a Polish painter, scene designer and theatre director. ... Dino Buzzati Traverso (October 16, 1906 - January 28, 1972) was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for Corriere della Sera. ... Peter Weiss (November 8, 1916 - May 10, 1982) was a German writer, painter and artist. ... Wolfgang Hildesheimer (b. ... Günter Wilhelm Grass (born October 16, 1927) is a Nobel Prize-winning German author and playwright. ... Mohit Chattopadhyaya (also spelled Mohit Chattopadhyay) is a famous Bengali Indian Playwright, screenplay writer, dramatist & poet. ... Mahesh Elkunchwar (born October 9, 1939) is an Indian playwright with more than 15 plays to his name, in addition to his theoretical writings, critical works, and his active work in Indias Middle Cinema as actor and screenwriter. ... Miguel Mihura Santos (1905–1977) was a Spanish playwright. ... José Sobral de Almada Negreiros (São Tomé, São Tomé e Príncipe, April 7, 1893- Lisbon, July 15, 1970) was a Portuguese painter, poet and writer. ... Yordan Radichkov Yordan Radichkov (October 24, 1929 - January 21, 2004) was a famous Bulgarian writer and playwright, arguably the most significant figure in Bulgarian literature in the last third of the 20th century he was full of subversive insight and is often referred to as the Bulgarian Kafka or Gogol. ... Václav Havel, GCB, CC, (IPA: ) (born October 5, 1936 in Prague) is a Czech writer and dramatist. ...

Major productions

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Jean Genet’s The Maids (Les Bonnes) premiered in 1947. Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice Chauve) was first performed on May 11, 1950 at the Théâtre des Noctambules. Ionesco followed this with "The Lesson" ( "La Leçon") 1951 and The Chairs (Les Chaises) in 1952. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was first performed on the 5th of January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris. In 1956 Genet’s The Balcony (Le Balcon) was produced in London at the Arts Theatre. The following year, Beckett’s Endgame was first performed, and that may Harold Pinter’s The Room was presented at The Drama Studio at the University of Bristol. Pinter’s The Birthday Party premiered in the West End and Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story premiered in West Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt – both in 1958. On the October 28th of that year, Krapp's Last Tape by Beckett was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Fernando Arrabal's Pique-nique en campagne (Picnic on the Battlefield) also came out in 1958. Genet’s The Blacks (Les Nègres) was published that year but was first performed at the Théatre de Lutèce in Paris on the 28th October, 1959. 1959 also saw the completion of Ionesco’s Rhinocéros. Beckett’s Happy Days was first performed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York on the 17th of September 1961. Albee’s Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? also premiered in New York the following year, on October 13th. Pinter’s The Homecoming premiered in London in 1964. Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade) was first performed in West Berlin in 1964 and in New York City a year later. Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. Arrabal's Le Cimetière des voitures (Automobile Graveyard) was also first performed in 1966. Beckett’s Catastrophe–dedicated to then-imprisoned Czech dissident playwright Václav Havel, who became president of Czechoslovakia after the 1989 Velvet Revolution–was first performed at the Avignon Festival on July 21, 1982; the film version (in Beckett on Film [2001]) was directed by David Mamet and performed by Harold Pinter, Sir John Gielgud, and Rebecca Pidgeon. Jean Genet (French IPA: ) (December 19, 1910) – April 15, 1986), was a prominent, controversial French writer and later political activist. ... Eugène Ionesco (Romanian spelling: Eugen Ionescu) (November 26, 1912 - March 28, 1994) was one of the foremost playwrights of the theater of the absurd. ... This article is about the Irish writer. ... Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which the characters wait for Godot, who never arrives. ... The Balcony (Le Balcon) is a 1956 play by Jean Genet. ... Endgame is a one-act play for four characters by Samuel Beckett. ... The Birthday Party is the name of an acclaimed play (and later movie) written by Harold Pinter: The Birthday Party (play); and an influential post-punk band led by Nick Cave: The Birthday Party (band). ... Edward Franklin Albee III (born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright known for works including Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, The Sandbox and The American Dream. ... The Zoo Story is American playwright Edward Albees first play; written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks. ... Krapps Last Tape and Embers. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Blacks: A Clown Show (Les Nègres) is a play by the French dramatist and novelist Jean Genet. ... For other uses, see Happy Days (disambiguation). ... For the 1966 film adaptation, see Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (film) Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. ... The Homecoming is a play by Harold Pinter, first published in 1965. ... The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, published in 1963, is a play by Peter Weiss, directed both on stage and screen by Peter Brook. ... Sir Tom Stoppard, OM, CBE (born as Tomáš Straussler on July 3, 1937)[1] is an Academy Award winning British playwright of more than 24 plays. ... This article is about the play. ... Catastrophe (Gk. ... Václav Havel, GCB, CC, (IPA: ) (born October 5, 1936 in Prague) is a Czech writer and dramatist. ... Non-violent protesters face armed policemen The Velvet Revolution (Czech: , Slovak: ) (November 16 – December 29, 1989) refers to a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government there;[1] it is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... Beckett on Film was a project to make film versions of all nineteen of Samuel Becketts plays for the stage with the exception of the early and unperformed Eleutheria. ... David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director. ... Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born 10 October 1930) is an English playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist. ... Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH (14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000), known as Sir John Gielgud, was an English theatre and film actor. ... Rebecca Pidgeon (born October 10, 1965) is an actress, singer, songwriter, and the wife of playwright David Mamet. ...

Legacy

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Echoes of elements of "The Theatre of the Absurd" can be seen in many later playwrights, from more avant-garde or experimental playwrights like Susan-Lori Parks–in The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and The America Play, for example–to relatively realistic playwrights like David Mamet–in Glengarry Glen Ross, which Mamet dedicated to Harold Pinter.^{[citations needed]} A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director. ... This article is about the play by David Mamet. ... Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born 10 October 1930) is an English playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist. ...

Essential traits

Most of the bewilderment absurdist drama initially created was because critics and reviewers were used to the Realism of more conventional drama.^{[citations needed]} In practice, The Theatre of the Absurd departs from realistic characters, situations and all of the associated theatrical conventions.^{[citations needed]} Time, place and identity are ambiguous and fluid, and even basic causality frequently breaks down.^{[citations needed]} Meaningless plots, repetitive or nonsensical dialogue and dramatic non-sequiturs are often used to create dream-like, or even nightmare-like moods.^{[citations needed]} There is a fine line, however, between the careful and artful use of chaos and non-realistic elements and true, meaningless chaos.^{[citations needed]} While many of the plays described by this title seem to be quite random and meaningless on the surface, an underlying structure and meaning is usually found in the midst of the chaos.^{[citations needed]} According to Martin Esslin, Absurdism is "the inevitable devaluation of ideals, purity, and purpose" (Esslin [1961] 24). Absurdist Drama asks its audience to "draw his own conclusions, make his own errors" (Esslin [1961] 20). Though Theatre of the Absurd may be seen as nonsense, they have something to say and can be understood" (Esslin [1961] 21). Esslin makes a distinction between the dictionary definition of absurd ("out of harmony" in the musical sense) and Drama’s understanding of the Absurd: "Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose.... Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless" (Esslin [1961] 23). Look up realism, realist, realistic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the rhetoric device. ...

Characters

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The characters in Absurdist drama are lost and floating in an incomprehensible universe and they abandon rational devices and discursive thought because these approaches are inadequate (Watt and Richardson 1154). Many characters appear as automatons stuck in routines speaking only in cliché (Ionesco called the Old Man and Old Woman in The Chairs "uber-marrionettes"). Characters are frequently stereotypical, archetypal, or flat character types as in Commedia dell'arte. Les Chaises (English The Chairs) is an absurdist tragic farce by Eugene Ionesco. ... For other uses, see Archetype (disambiguation). ... Commedia redirects here. ...

The more complex characters are in crisis because the world around them is incomprehenisible. Many of Pinter's plays, for example, feature characters trapped in an enclosed space menaced by some force the character can't understand. Pinter’s first play was The Room – in which the main character, Rose, is menaced by Riley who invades her safe space though the actual source of menace remains a mystery – and this theme of characters in a safe space menaced by an outside force is repeated in many of his later works (perhaps most famously in The Birthday Party). Characters in Absurdist drama may also face the chaos of a world that science and logic have abandoned. Ionesco’s reoccurring character Berenger, for example, faces a killer without motivation in The Killer, and Berenger’s logical arguments fail to convince the killer that killing is wrong. In Rhinocéros, Berenger remains the only human on Earth who hasn’t turned into a rhinoceros and must decide whether or not to conform. Characters may find themselves trapped in a routine or, in a metafictional conceit, trapped in a story; the titular characters in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, for example, find themselves in a story (Hamlet) in which the outcome has already been written. The Room has strong ties to The Birthday Party, also by Harold Pinter. ... The Birthday Party is the second play by Harold Pinter. ... Rhinoceros, performed by Naqshineh Theatre. ... Sir Tom Stoppard, OM, CBE (born as Tomáš Straussler on July 3, 1937)[1] is an Academy Award winning British playwright of more than 24 plays. ... This article is about the play. ... For other uses, see Hamlet (disambiguation). ...

The plots of many Absurdist plays feature characters in interdependent pairs, commonly either two males or a male and a female. The two characters may be roughly equal or have a begrudging interdependence (like Vladamir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot or the two main characters in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead); one character may be clearly dominant and may torture the passive character (like Pozzo and Lucky in Waiting for Godot or Hamm and Clov in Endgame); the relationship of the characters may shift dramatically throughout the play (as in Ionesco’s The Lesson or in many of Albee’s plays, The Zoo Story for example)^{[citations needed]}. Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which the characters wait for Godot, who never arrives. ... This article is about the play. ... Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which the characters wait for Godot, who never arrives. ... Endgame is a one-act play for four characters by Samuel Beckett. ... The Lesson, or La Leçon, is a short, one-act play from 1951 by French-Romanian playwright, Eugène Ionesco. ... The Zoo Story is American playwright Edward Albees first play; written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks. ...

Language

Despite its reputation for nonsense language, much of the dialogue in Absurdist plays is naturalistic. The moments when characters resort to nonsense language or clichés–when words appear to have lost their denotative function, thus creating misunderstanding among the characters (Esslin [1961] 26)–make Theatre of the Absurd distinctive. Language frequently gains a certain phonetic, rhythmical, almost musical quality, opening up a wide range of often comedic playfulness. Distinctively Absurdist language will range from meaningless clichés to Vaudeville-style word play to meaningless nonsense. The Bald Soprano, for example, was inspired by a language book in which characters would exchange empty clichés that never ultimately amounted to true communication or true connection.^{[citations needed]} Likewise, the characters in The Bald Soprano–like many other Absurdist characters–go through routine dialogue full of clichés without actually communicating anything substantive or making a human connection. In other cases, the dialogue is purposefully elliptical; the language of Absurdist Theater becomes secondary to the poetry of the concrete and objectified images of the stage. Many of Beckett's plays devalue language for the sake of the striking tableau. Harold Pinter–famous for his "Pinter pause"–presents more subtly elliptical dialogue; often the primary things characters should address is replaced by ellipsis or dashes. The following exchange between Aston and Davies in The Caretaker is typical of Pinter: The Caretaker is a play by the Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, first published in 1959. ...

ASTON. More or less exactly what you...

DAVIES. That's it ... that's what I'm getting at is ... I mean, what sort of jobs ... (Pause.)

ASTON. Well, there's things like the stairs ... and the ... the bells ...

DAVIES. But it'd be a matter ... wouldn't it ... it'd be a matter of a broom ... isn't it?

^{[citations needed]}

Much of the dialogue in Absurdist drama (especially in Beckett's and Albee's plays, for example) reflects this kind of evasiveness and inability to make a connection. When language that is apparently nonsensical appears, it also demonstrates this disconnection. It can be used for comic effect, as in Lucky's long speech in Godot when Pozzo says Lucky is demonstrating a talent for "thinking" as other characters comically attempt to stop him:

LUCKY. Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda with those who for reasons unknown but time will tell are plunged in torment...

^{[citations needed]}

Nonsense may also be used abusively, as in Pinter's The Birthday Party when Goldberg and McCann torture Stanley with apparently-nonsensical questions and non-sequiturs: The Birthday Party is the second play by Harold Pinter. ... This article is about the rhetoric device. ...

GOLDBERG. What do you use for pyjamas?

STANLEY. Nothing.

GOLDBERG. You verminate the sheet of your birth.

MCCANN. What about the Albigensenist heresy?

GOLDBERG. Who watered the wicket in Melbourne?

MCCANN. What about the blessed Oliver Plunkett?

GOLDBERG. Speak up Webber. Why did the chicken cross the road?

^{[citations needed]}

As in the above examples, nonsense in Absurdist theatre may be also used to demonstrate the limits of language while questioning or parodying the determinism of science and the knowability of truth. In Ionesco's The Lesson, a professor tries to force a pupil to understand his nonsensical philology lesson:

PROFESSOR. ... In Spanish: the roses of my grandmother are as yellow as my grandfather who is Asiatic; in Latin: the roses of my grandmother are as yellow as my grandfather who is Asiatic. Do you detect the difference? Translate this into ... Romanian

PUPIL. The ... how do you say "roses" in Romanian?

PROFESSOR. But "roses," what else? ... "roses" is a translation in Oriental of the French word "roses," in Spanish "roses," do you get it? In Sardanapali, "roses"...

^{[citations needed]}

Plot

This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (March 2008)

Traditional plot structures are rarely a consideration in The Theatre of the Absurd. Plots can consist of the absurd repetition of cliché and routine, as in Godot or The Bald Soprano. Often there is a menacing outside force that remains a mystery; in The Birthday Party, for example, Goldberg and McCann confront Stanley, torture him with absurd questions, and drag him off at the end, but it is never revealed why. Absence, emptiness, nothingness, and unresolved mysteries are central features in many Absurdist plots: for example, in The Chairs an old couple welcomes a large number of guests to their home, but these guests are invisible so all we see is empty chairs, a representation of their absence. Likewise, the action of Godot is centered around the absence of a man named Godot, for whom the characters perpetually wait. In many of Beckett's later plays, most features are stripped away and what's left is a minimalistic tableau: a woman walking slowly back and forth in Footfalls, for example, or in Breath only a junk heap on stage and the sounds of breathing. The Bald Soprano also translated as the Bald Prima Donna (French original title La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Singer)) was the first play written by Eugène Ionesco. ... Footfalls is a play by Samuel Beckett. ... Breath is also a short stage work by Samuel Beckett. ...

The plot may also revolve around an unexplained metamorphosis, a supernatural change, or a shift in the laws of physics. For example, in Ionesco’s Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It, a couple must deal with a corpse that is steadily growing larger and larger; Ionesco never fully reveals the identity of the corpse, how this person died, or why it’s continually growing, but the corpse ultimately – and, again, without explanation – floats away.

Like Pirandello, many Absurdists use meta-theatrical techniques to explore role fulfillment, fate, and the theatricality of theatre. This is true for many of Genet's plays: for example, in The Maids, two maids pretend to be their masters; in The Balcony brothel patrons take on elevated positions in role-playing games, but the line between theatre and reality starts to blur. Another complex example of this is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: it's a play about two minor characters in Hamlet; these characters, in turn, have various encounters with the players who perform The Mousetrap, the play-with-in-the-play in Hamlet. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a humorous, absurdist, tragic and existentialist play by Tom Stoppard, first staged in 1966. ... For other uses, see Hamlet (disambiguation). ...

Plots are frequently cyclical: for example, Endgame begins where the play ended – some lines at the beginning responding to some lines at the end – and it can be assumed that each day the same actions will take place.

See also

• Charles Ludlam
• Miguel Mihura
• Wajdi Mouawad
• Lauran Trao
• Walter Wykes

Charles Ludlam (April 12, 1943 in Floral Park, New York - May 28, 1987) was an American actor and playwright. ... Miguel Mihura Santos (1905–1977) was a Spanish playwright. ... Wajdi Mouawad is a Canadian writer, actor and director born in Lebanon in 1968. ... Walter Wykes (born October 30, 1969) is an American playwright and actor. ...

Notes

Works cited

• Artaud, Antonin. The Theatre and Its Double. Tr. Mary Caroline Richards. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1958.
• Esslin, Martin. Absurd Drama. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1965.
• –––. The Theatre of the Absurd. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961.
• –––. The Theatre of the Absurd. 3rd ed. With a new foreword by the author. New York: Vintage (Knopf), 2004. ISBN 9781400075232 (13).
• Jacobus, Lee A. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2005.
• Ionesco, Eugene. Fragments of a Journal. Tr. Jean Stewart. London: Faber and Faber, 1968.
• Knowlson, James. Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove P, 1996.
• Sartre, Jean-Paul. "Beyond Bourgeois Theatre", Tulane Drama Review 5.3 (Mar. 1961): 6.
• –––. "Introduction". The Maids and Deathwatch, by Jean Genet. Tr. Bernard Frechtman. New York: Grove P, 1954.
• Watt, Stephen and Gary A. Richardson, eds. American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary. Boston: Thompson, 2003.
• Worthen, W. B., ed. The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama. 5th ed. Boston: Thompson, 2007.

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (born September 4, 1896, in Marseille; died March 4, 1948 in Paris) was a French playwright, poet, actor and director. ... Martin Julius Esslin (born Julius Pereszlenyi on June 6, 1918–died February 24, 2002) was a Hungarian born English playwright and critic best known for coining the term the theatre of the absurd in his work of that name (1962). ... Eugène Ionesco (Romanian spelling: Eugen Ionescu) (November 26, 1912 - March 28, 1994) was one of the foremost playwrights of the theater of the absurd. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Salacious Sinners The Maids is a play written by French writer Jean Genet. ... Jean Genet (French IPA: ) (December 19, 1910) – April 15, 1986), was a prominent, controversial French writer and later political activist. ...

Further reading

• Ackerley, C. J. and S. E. Gontarski, ed. The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove P, 2004.
• Baker, William, and John C. Ross, comp. Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History. London: The British Library and New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll P, 2005. ISBN 1584561564 (10). ISBN 9781584561569 (13).
• Brook, Peter. The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate. Touchstone, 1995. ISBN 0684829576 (10).
• Caselli, Daniela. Beckett's Dantes: Intertextuality in the Fiction and Criticism. ISBN 0-7190-7156-9.
• Cronin, Anthony. Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist. New York: Da Capo P, 1997.
• Gaensbauer, Deborah B. Eugene Ionesco Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1996.
• Lewis, Allan. Ionesco. New York: Twayne, 1972.
• McMahon, Joseph H. The Imagination of Jean Genet. New Haven: Yale UP, 1963.
• Mercier, Vivian. Beckett/Beckett. Oxford UP, 1977. ISBN 0-19-281269-6.

British Library main building, London The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom. ...

External Links

• Beckett, Pirandello and Ionesco