The theater of the absurd. The search for the meaning of life, or the struggle with ideals

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

While watching the performances of some playwrights, for example, Eugene Ionesco, one can come across such a phenomenon in the art world as the theater of the absurd. To understand what contributed to the emergence of this direction, you need to turn to the history of the 50s of the last century.

What is the theater of the absurd (drama of the absurd)

In the 50s, productions appeared for the first time, the plot of which seemed absolutely meaningless to the audience. The main concept of these plays was the alienation of man from the social and physical environment. In addition, during the action on stage, the actors managed to combine incompatible concepts.

The new plays broke all the laws of dramaturgy and did not recognize any authorities. Thus, all cultural traditions were challenged. This new theatrical phenomenon, which to some extent denied the existing political and social system, was the theater of the absurd. The concept was first used by theater critic Martin Esslin only in 1962. But some playwrights disagreed with this term. For example, Eugene Ionesco proposed to name a new phenomenon"the theater of mockery".

History and sources

At the origins of the new direction were several French and one Irish author. Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett were able to win the greatest popularity from the viewer. Jean Genet and Arthur Adamov also contributed to the development of the genre.

The idea of the theater of the absurd first came to E. Ionesco. The playwright tried to learn English using a self-study textbook. It was then that he drew attention to the fact that many of the dialogues and lines in the textbook are completely incoherent. He saw that in ordinary words there is a lot of absurdity, which often turns even smart and pompous words into completely meaningless.

However, it would not be entirely fair to say that only a few French playwrights were involved in the emergence of a new direction. After all, the existentialists spoke about the absurdity of human existence. For the first time, this topic was fully developed by A. Camus, whose work was significantly influenced by F. Kafka and F. Dostoevsky. However, it was E. Ionesco and S. Beckett who designated and brought to the stage the theater of the absurd.

Features of the new theater

As already mentioned, the new direction in theatrical art denied classical dramaturgy. Common characteristic features for him were:

- fantastic elements that coexist with reality in the play;

- the emergence of mixed genres: tragicomedy, comic melodrama, tragic farce - which began to displace the "pure" ones;

-use in productions of elements that are typical for other types of art (chorus, pantomime, musical);

- in contrast to the traditional dynamic action on stage, as it was previously in classical productions, static prevails in the new direction;

- one of the main changes that characterizes the theater of the absurd is the speech of the characters of new productions: it seems that they communicate with themselves, because the partners do not listen and do not respond to each other's remarks, but simply pronounce their monologues in void.

Types of absurdity

The fact that the new direction in the theater had several founders at once explains the division of absurdity into types:

1. Nihilistic nonsense. These are the works of the already well-known E. Ionescu and Hildesheimer. Their plays differ in that the audience fails to understand the subtext of the game throughout the performance.

2. The second type of absurdity reflects the universal chaos and, as one of its main parts, man. In this vein, the works of S. Beckett and A. Adamov were created, who sought to emphasize the lack of harmony in human life.

3. satirical absurdity. As the name implies, the representatives of this movement Dürrenmatt, Grass, Frisch and Havel tried to ridicule the absurdity of their contemporary social order and human aspirations.

Key works of the theater of the absurd

What is the theater of the absurd, the audience learned after the premiere of "The Bald Singer" by E. Ionesco and"Waiting for Godot" by S. Beckett.

A characteristic feature of the production of "The Bald Singer" is that the one who should have been the main character does not appear on stage. There are only two married couples on stage, whose actions are absolutely static. Their speech is inconsistent and full of cliches, which further reflects the picture of the absurdity of the world around them. Such incoherent, but absolutely typical remarks are repeated by the characters over and over again. Language, which by its very nature is designed to make communication easy, in the play only gets in the way.

In Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot", two completely inactive characters are constantly waiting for a certain Godot. Not only does this character never appear throughout the entire action, besides, no one knows him. It is noteworthy that the name of this unknown hero is associated with the English word God, i.e. "God". The heroes recall incoherent fragments from their lives, and besides, they are not left with a feeling of fear and uncertainty, because there is simply no way to act that could protect a person.

Thus, the theater of the absurd proves that the meaning of human existence can only be found in realizing that it has no meaning.