Absurdist Theatre
Historical context
Absurdist Theatre took place in a momentary crisis in the literary and artistic movement of Modernism (the latest things, what was in fashion etc.) during the 50’s and 60’s. It was mainly influenced from World War 1 and 2, Liberalism and Epidemics and was also influenced through it’s drugs, sexual revolution, anti war protests, student up-risings, sit-ins, ban the bomb marches, feminism, performing arts, The Black Panther Movement (a group formed in California in 1966, having a desire for equality in education, housing, employment and civil rights), hippies and existentialism (a philosophical movement that views human existence as having a set of underlying themes and characteristics).
Social context
East European absurd plays are quite realistic and menacing, where as West European absurd plays are subdued (not harsh) and abstract (irregular). The social system is frequently shown as the results of the actions of stupid, misguided or evil people (the blame being kept hidden in the play), which was not well received by audiences. It highlighted man’s fundamental bewilderment and confusion from the fact that men had no answers to existential questions.
Political context
The political context of Absurdist Theatre was shaped by the political chaos, scientific breakthrough and social disturbance throughout the 10 years between 1950 and 1960. The reaction to the “collapse of moral, religious, political and social structures”, which followed the Twentieth Century world wars, established the idea of Absurdist Theatre and it was heavily influenced by existential philosophy.
Leading Playwrite and Theatre Practitioner
Samuel Beckett was born on April 13th, 1906, and died on December 22nd, 1989. He was an Irish playwright and lived in Paris for his adult years. He writes in English and French, and his theatrical productions “Malloy”, “Waiting for Godot” and “The Unnamable”, published between 1950 and 1952, were originally in French. Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature at around 1968, meaning that he’d be known as a playwright worldwide. Beckett wanted to send the message, through his plays, that the absurdity the society was holding was simply a result of their self conscious state of mind, and that each individual could only pass the time as painlessly as possible until they approach the end of their life.
Antonin Artaud was born in 1895 and died in 1948. He was a French theatrical practitioner, who moved to Paris in 1920 to pursue a career as a writer but instead going into theatre. He wanted his theatres to have the ability to violate the audience’s comfort in order to persuade them to make a change and re-evaluate their lives. He wanted Eastern theatre, and the aspects it possessed, to join to the Western theatre in order to get the audience out of their comfort zone and place them in a situation in which they’ll feel uncomfortable about the problems in their society, encouraging them to act upon them. To develop the frantic environment in his plays, he also incorporated mechanical devices to create what was similar to that of Asian theatre. The alienated sounds, lights and movement were used to create symbolism in each gesture and sound, which made the audience feel quite uncomfortable. Antonin believed that traditional Western theatre deadened the lives of the actors and audience involved in it, and, in order to prevent having any Western traditional theatre in his works, he developed his own theatre “experimentations”. He also prohibited the reliance of words and script in order to take the audience to the past, from the present. He aimed to form a theatre where words didn’t have any power and language became more like a chant.
Theatrical Elements and Conventions
The characters in Theatre of Absurdist normally undergo strange, unusual behaviours that the audiences aren’t use to. They don’t have names, jobs or background information about themselves and they normally have no power over what happens to them. The settings are normally very simple (they aren’t too specific about location, type of environment, time of day etc.) and the plays are set in a variety places; there’s no definite setting as to where Absurdist Theatre plays are set. Language and dialogue can be confusing, and words are usually used as sound and noise rather than having the purpose of communication. Pauses and silences, used correctly, are also essential to language, and repetition/rhymes are also used frequently in plays.
Key Terms
- Grotesque Movements
- Alienation
- Antonin Artaud
- Eugene Ionesco
- Samuel Beckett
- Jean Genet
- Disconnection
- Real and non-real techniques
- Artificial language
- Symbolism
- Albert Camus
- Alfred Jarry
- Luigi Pirandello
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Existentialism
Costume and Set
1st Row: “Maids” (Jean Genet)
2nd Row: "Waiting for Godot” (Samuel Beckett)
3rd Row: “No Exit” (Jean-Paul Sartre)
4th Row: "The Bald Soprano” (Eugène Ionesco)
2nd Row: "Waiting for Godot” (Samuel Beckett)
3rd Row: “No Exit” (Jean-Paul Sartre)
4th Row: "The Bald Soprano” (Eugène Ionesco)
Bibliography
Images
Waiting for Godot
http://carlavdmerwe.wordpress.com/tag/theatre-of-the-absurd/
http://backstage.blogs.com/blogstage/2009/05/waiting-for-godot-extended.html
The Bald Soprano
http://variety.com/2007/legit/reviews/the-bald-soprano-1200557219/
http://www.independent.com/news/2009/oct/27/bald-soprano-westmont/
http://hanakosu.deviantart.com/art/The-Bald-Soprano-1-104704096
The Maids
http://berkshireonstage.com/2010/10/14/genets-the-maids-has-all-male-cast-for-a-change/
http://www.joshchristdesign.com/the-maids---jean-genet1.html
http://stephenmcleodactor.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/performing-in-jean-genets-the-maids/
No Exit
http://theatreuaf.org/archives/no_exit/No_Exit_01.jpg
http://theatreuaf.org/archives/no_exit/No_Exit_61.jpg
http://theatreuaf.org/archives/no_exit/No_Exit_14.jpg
Samuel Beckett
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Samuel_Beckett%2C_Pic%2C_1.jpg
Antonin Artaud
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/Artaud_manray.jpg
Information
http://www.samuel-beckett.net/AbsurdAndBeck.htm
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm
http://britlitwiki.wikispaces.com/The+Theatre+of+the+Absurd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud
Acting in Person and in Style in Australia (book)
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=theatre%20of%20the%20absurd%20key%20elements&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDkQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdramaatkamo.wikispaces.com%2Ffile%2Fview%2FTheatre%2Bof%2BThe%2BAbsurd.ppt&ei=D9FDUvyQNIbmiAfM14HQBQ&usg=AFQjCNEU9eEweK-B7Wydr9Sq1Q85mPxMlg&sig2=wdpeExrNI6h_3pgv7QWa-A
^(Online powerpoint)
Waiting for Godot
http://carlavdmerwe.wordpress.com/tag/theatre-of-the-absurd/
http://backstage.blogs.com/blogstage/2009/05/waiting-for-godot-extended.html
The Bald Soprano
http://variety.com/2007/legit/reviews/the-bald-soprano-1200557219/
http://www.independent.com/news/2009/oct/27/bald-soprano-westmont/
http://hanakosu.deviantart.com/art/The-Bald-Soprano-1-104704096
The Maids
http://berkshireonstage.com/2010/10/14/genets-the-maids-has-all-male-cast-for-a-change/
http://www.joshchristdesign.com/the-maids---jean-genet1.html
http://stephenmcleodactor.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/performing-in-jean-genets-the-maids/
No Exit
http://theatreuaf.org/archives/no_exit/No_Exit_01.jpg
http://theatreuaf.org/archives/no_exit/No_Exit_61.jpg
http://theatreuaf.org/archives/no_exit/No_Exit_14.jpg
Samuel Beckett
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Samuel_Beckett%2C_Pic%2C_1.jpg
Antonin Artaud
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/Artaud_manray.jpg
Information
http://www.samuel-beckett.net/AbsurdAndBeck.htm
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm
http://britlitwiki.wikispaces.com/The+Theatre+of+the+Absurd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud
Acting in Person and in Style in Australia (book)
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=theatre%20of%20the%20absurd%20key%20elements&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDkQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdramaatkamo.wikispaces.com%2Ffile%2Fview%2FTheatre%2Bof%2BThe%2BAbsurd.ppt&ei=D9FDUvyQNIbmiAfM14HQBQ&usg=AFQjCNEU9eEweK-B7Wydr9Sq1Q85mPxMlg&sig2=wdpeExrNI6h_3pgv7QWa-A
^(Online powerpoint)