Theatre of the Absurd
The theatre of the absurd was a short-lived yet significant theatrical movement, centred in Paris in the 1950s. Unusual in this instance was the absence of a single practitioner spearheading the form. Largely based on the philosophy of existentialism, absurdism was implemented by a small number of European playwrights. Common elements included illogical plots inhabited by characters who appeared out of harmony with their own existence. The typical playgoer had never seen anything like this on the stage before. The theatre of the absurd will be remembered in history for many things, the most significant of these being Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot, one of the great plays of the 20th century.
Post World War 2 things in the Art world started to change. The post-war generation were angry that the world hadn't changed more after what everyone had been through. Others were disturbed in a psychological way. As realisations about the Holocaust and other war crimes emerged to a horrified world, many questioned how it could be that human beings behaved like this. What was a world that could produce such cruelty? What was Man that he was capable of such atrocities?
Out of that movement came his ideas for a theatre that is uncomfortable, disturbing, yet laughing at the absurdities of modern life.
It was not a conscious movement. Those involved were a disconnected group of playwrights. The beginnings of absurdism lie in avant-garde experiments of the 1920s and 30s, while some argue absurdist elements exist in plays such as Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896) seen below.
Theatre of the absurd is otherwise referred to as absurdism. Absurd originally means “out of harmony” (in a musical context) – its meaning in the theatre of the absurd is different to the everyday meaning of the word as “ridiculous”
Absurd in the context of absurdism can mean:
• without purpose • illogical • out of harmony • useless • devoid of reason
• meaningless • hopeless • chaotic • lacking order • uncertain
Therefore, the Absurd is the essential pointlessness of Man, of the World, indeed of the whole of existence.
New beliefs and philosophies emerged. In France, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were at the forefront of a new way of looking at the world called Existentialism. One of the kernels of this way of thinking was the essential aloneness of Man - no God, no higher plane, Man enters this world alone and leaves it, equally, alone.
This concept influenced such playwrights as Samuel Beckett and Eugene lonesco. The various influences of Surrealism and the inner dream or nightmare state it explores. Existentialism with its bleak view of Man within the Universe, informs much of the literary work of this period.
Existentialism
Lying in the background to absurdism is the notion of existentialism
The existentialist believes that man starts life with nothing. His life is made up of acts; through the process of acting man becomes conscious of his original nothingness. By choosing to act, man passes into the arena of human responsibility which makes him the creator of his own existence. However, the existence inevitably ends with death. Man returns to his original state of nothingness. This existential notion eliminates the Western concept of man’s exalted nature. Life becomes meaningless and useless – a condition which is in essence “absurd”. Man’s only freedom in this condition is the exercise of his conscious mind. However, consciousness means conflict – between man’s awareness of the absurdity of his existence and his need for justification of his human action.
Sartre denied the existence of a God, seeing humans with no choice but to create their own standards and moral code in life (instead of accepting standards offered by the Church, the State, or society)
For Camus, the legendary figure of Sisyphus was the prototype of an ‘absurd’ hero, condemned by the gods forever to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it roll back down again by its own weight. He represented the epitome of futile labour and pointless existence.existence
A Video of the History of the Theatre of the Absurd.MP4An introduction to ABURDIST THEATRE
Plot and Structure
Absurdist was anti-realistic, going against many of the accepted norms of conventional theatre - it was labeled by some critics as ‘anti-theatre’
It was often characterised by a deliberate absence of the cause and effect relationship between scenes, non-linear plot developments, and sometimes cyclical – ending where they began, occasionally appearing as though there is no plot at all to speak of, and there was a deliberate lack of conflict
“… a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What’s more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice.”
On the plot of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot – Vivian Mercier, The Irish Times, 18 February, 1956
Acting and Characterisation
Both presentational and representational modes of acting, sometimes stereotypical, and often an absence of character development. Absurd characters lack the motivation found in characters of realistic dramas, highlighting their purposelessness.
Time, place and identity are frequently blurred with characters often unsure about who or where they are. Characters are often out of harmony or out of sync with the world in which they live.
Dialogue
Language was devalued as a communication tool (it was unreliable and distrusted) and often illogical. Sometimes it was telegraphic and clipped with long pauses. It could be clichéd, repetitive, rhythmical, frequent use of silence, monotone but slow dialogue was sometimes accompanied by a frenzied, fast-paced monologue (extremes!)
An excerpt from the play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"
Benedict Cumberbatch as Rosencrantz in Tom Stoppard Play | Great Performances | PBS.MP4The most famous play of the Absurd movement is undoubtedly Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot.
Two tramps are waiting on a road by a tree. Every day they wait in the same spot, but is it? The tree has leaves in one act, but doesn 't in the other. The uncertainty of all of life is summed up in the phrase, repeated throughout the play: Nothing is certain. The tramps have a reason for being in this place - they are waiting for Godot - who never appears, though each day a boy arrives and brings a message from him. The boy never recognises the two and may not be the same boy, but his brother. All feeds into the idea of uncertainty. Who is Godot? Maybe God, maybe just the pointless point of their waiting - their reason for existence.
Despite the melancholy subject matter, there is plenty of humour in the play as the tramps invent ways of filling the empty space of their day by playing verbal games with each other.
In this short extract Estragon has just looked round at the surroundings and is wondering if they are waiting in the right place.
ESTRAGON You're sure it was here?
VLADIMIR What?
ESTRAGON That we were to wait
VLADIMIR He said by the tree. [They look at the tree.] Do you see any others?
ESTRAGON What is it?
VLADIMIR I don't know. A willow?
ESTRAGON Where are the leaves?
VLADIMIR It must be dead.
ESTRAGON No more weeping.
VLADIMIR Or perhaps it’s not the season.
ESTRAGON Looks to me more like a bush.
VLADIMIR A shrub.
ESTRAGON A bush.
VLADIMIR A... What are you insinuating? That we've come to the wrong place?
ESTRAGON He should be here.
VLADIMIR He didn't say for sure that he'd come.
ESTRAGON And if he doesn't come?
VLADIMIR We'll come back tomorrow.
ESTRAGON And then the day after tomorrow.
VLADIMIR Possibly.
ESTRAGON And so on.
VLADIMIR The point is-
ESTRAGON Until he comes.
VLADIMIR You're merciless.
ESTRAGON We came here yesterday.
VLADIMIR Ah, no, there you're mistaken.
ESTRAGON What did we do yesterday?
VLADIMIR What did we do yesterday?
ESTRAGON Yes.
VLADIMIR Why... [Angrily] Nothing is certain when you're about
Movement
Absurdist acting uses a mixture of realistic and non-realistic physicalisation. There are elements of circus, vaudeville and acrobatics. It is often ritualistic, slow, illogical, repetitive, and the action sometimes defies logic or easy understanding.
“… the absurdists, while for the most part accepting Sartre’s philosophical outlook, tended to concentrate upon the irrationality of human experience without suggesting any path beyond. By employing a succession of episodes unified merely by theme or mood instead of a cause-to-effect arrangement, they arrived at a structure parallelling the chaos which was their usual dramatic subject. The sense of absurdity was heightened by the juxtaposition of incongruous events producing seriocomic and ironic effects.”
A first look at WAITING FOR GODOT..MP4Highlights from "Waiting for Godot" - emphasises the fact that, despite the subject matter, it is still whimsical and funny... but also quite dark.
Mood and Atmosphere
Could move from one extreme to the other without notice - often sombre and serious, and then highly comical.
The stage was often simple and minimalist with barren set pieces barely indicating a location .
Waiting for Godot is so famous, Sesame Street did a parody...
Sesame Street - Monsterpiece Theater "Waiting for Elmo".MP4Watch the following video. It is an HSC group performance that received full marks. (One of the marking criteria is for using a performance style's forms and conventions)
So what is it about this performance that makes it an exemplary piece of Absurdist theatre?
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And Alone You Have Nothing - GP Recorded at OffStage February 10 2018.mp4