TRAGICOMEDY &

THEATER OF THE
ABSURD
TRAGICOMEDY
 TRAGICOMEDY
• A type of drama coined in classical era by
Roman dramatist Plautus (mainly comedy).

• Became famous in Elizabethan times - characters often

brought close to death through plot reversals and
sudden catastrophes, but never actually killed.
 TRAGICOMEDY
• Traditional tragicomedy:
• Mixed dramatic form
• Serious or potentially tragic work that ends well
• Shakespeare’s tragicomedies:
• All’s Well that Ends Well
• Winter’s Tale
• Modern tragicomedy:
• Play with mixed moods (Chekhov’s “quiet desperation”)
• Endings indeterminate—neither tragic nor comic
 TRAGICOMEDY
• Examples of modern tragicomedy:
• Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov:
• Characters endure unfulfilling marriage, work,
family.
• Only option is survival: “We’ve got to live.”
 TRAGICOMEDY
• Modern “American” tragicomedy:
• Depicts characters who are amusing and
serious without being foolish or superficial
• Angels in America, Tony Kushner:
• Transcends indeterminate endings typical of
modern tragicomedy
• Replaces despair with idea of social change
THEATHER
OF THE
ABSURD
 FROM TRAGICOMEDY TO
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

• 20th century evolution of Tragicomedy, stemming

from avant-garde movement and horrors of WWII.
• Represented the absurdity and meaninglessness of
human life through surreal, illogical, conflictless
and plotless story lines meant to force the viewer
to question conventional life.
• Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" (no happy or
sad ending) and "Endgame"
• "Le Professeur Taranne" by Arthur Adamov
• The term (now genre)Theatre of the Absurd was
coined by critic Martin Esslin to bring attention to a
group of playwrights whose plays conveyed a
common sense of anxiety, confusion and
hopelessness in reaction to an unexplainable,
unpredictable and absurd universe.
.

• Two major contributing factors to this genre were

the atrocities of World War II and the philosophical
questions regarding the meaning of life raised by
Existentialists
Within the word existentialism is the word exist.
We are thrown into existence without a choice.
However, once we exist, we have the freedom to
choose how to exist.
We have the freedom to choose to create
meaningful, valuable lives.
 WITH THAT
FREEDOM OF
CHOICE,COMES
ANXIETY AND FEAR.

ANXIETY THAT WE
MAY MAKE THE
“WRONG”CHOICES!

FEAR THAT WE
MAY DIE BEFORE WE
FIND MEANING
IN OUR LIVES!
Mere existence has no purpose.

Despite the fear and anxiety,

we can choose our purpose
and define it.

Ultimately, we decide if our lives have value.

Perhaps the best-know existentialist, Jean-Paul
Sartre’s works included essays, novels and plays
such as No Exit.
Albert Camus, wrote The
Myth of Sisyphus, among
other works with existential
themes. Using the Greek
myth to show the futility of
existence, Sisyphus is
eternally condemned to roll
a rock up a hill and every
time he reaches the top, the
rock rolls back down and he
has to start over. Existence
seems pointless, but perhaps
Sisyphus finds purpose and
meaning in his eternal task by
never giving up and
continuing to push the rock
up every time it rolls back
down.
SISYPHUS
The father of Theatre of the Absurd Samuel
Beckett wrote, among others, Waiting for
Godot, Happy Days,
and Act Without Words, I
Eugene Ionesco’s plays include The Leader , The
Rhinoceros, The Bald Soprano, Macbett, The Killing
Game, and The Chairs.
Tom Stoppard wrote, among others, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead, The Real Thing, Jumpers, and
he co-wrote the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love.
Harold Pinter’s plays include The Room, The
Birthday Party, The Homecoming, and
Betrayal.
Edward Albee’s plays include The Zoo Story,
Sandbox, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and
Seascape.
Sam Shepard’s many plays include A Lie of the Mind,
Fool for Love and his Pulitzer Prize play Buried Child.
Sam Shepard is also a respected actor and
director. He’s acted in 39 films including Black
Hawk Down, The Right Stuff, Crimes of the Heart,
and Steel Magnolias.
Thornton Wilder, known
for writing Our Town
also wrote the
absurdist play
The Skin of Our Teeth.
Christopher Durang’s
many plays include
Death Comes to Us All,
Mary Agnes, ‘dentity
Crisis, The Actor’s
Nightmare, Baby
and the Bathwater, and
The Marriage of Bette
and Boo.
The plays of these and other Absurdist playwrights
have common themes including the uselessness of
human actions, the failure of human
communication, an illogical universe (from fascist
governments to dysfunctional families),collective
unconsciousness, menacing forces, and feelings
of alienation and hopelessness.

However most plays of this genre are considered

to be in the tradition of tragicomedy.

We laugh at and identify with many of the

characters struggling, as we do, to make sense of
our lives and the world.
Historical background

• The aftermath of World War II

increased by the Cold War.

• The atrocities of the Nazi

concentration camps.
The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, 1945

• The Allies’ atomic bomb.

• Disillusionment coming from the

realization that Britain had been
reduced to a second-class
power.
The infamous entrance to Auschwitz.
New meaning of existence
• Awareness of man’s propensity
to evil and conscience of the
destructive power of scientific
knowledge. A sense of anguish,
helplessness and
• The lack of moral assurance
and the decline of religious rootlessness
faith. developed especially
among the young
• The disillusionment with both the
liberal and social theories about
economic and social progress.

• Mistrust in the power of reason.

 THEATER OF THE ABSURD
• People wanted to find meaning within life, since the
war (WW II) had ended.
• With all of the horrors they had seen, the Absurdist
writing became relentless and bitter.
• TWO MAIN TRENDS in new post-war drama: ANGER and
ABSURD
 THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
ELEMENTS:
THE BIG 6
• Departs from realistic characters and situations.
• Plots are often meaningless.
• Time, place and identity are unclear or confusing.
• There is confusing and repetitive language
• Dream/ nightmare like moods are created.
• While things may seem meaningless in the play, there is a
hidden meaning in all
 THEATER OF THE ABSURD
• The experience of the world is never debated, it is simply
presented, shown in action.
• It satirizes a society that is petty and dishonest.
• The setting is abstract. It is based on what is going on in the
characters’ heads.
• It lacks a clear division between fantasy and fact.
• It disrespects time. Time seems to expand, contract and
flipflop as it pleases.
• Language may be repetative and unusual, but it is the
characters defense against the world.
 ABSURDIST THEATRE:
• It often breaks down the fourth wall (the actors
will interact with the audience).
• It often contains Black Comedy.
• It uses silence as a metaphor.
• It uses ambiguity.
• It explores violence.
SAMUEL BECKETT 1906-
1989
 BECKETT:
• In Beckett’s work there is always a totally
uncompromising determination to always
observe the worst about every man and his
nature:
• Never fall for the cheap consolations
• Never accept any euphemisms
• Never have any false hope.
• Such determination to face the truth may
find gloomy answers, but it is, in itself,
anything but depressing because it shows
man as being capable of facing and
confronting the truth.
• This becomes something that is rather noble
and inspiring.
“WAITING FOR
GODOT”
BY SAMUEL
BECKETT
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Patrick Stewart as Vladimir and Ian McKellen as Estragon in “Waiting for
Godot,” which opens on Nov. 24 2013 at the Cort Theater.
 NO MEANING AT ALL

A tragic situation

Beckett’s plays want to represent just this

The absurdity and Irrationality of
Human Existence

To represent this …
…he did not follow a realistic form of drama
➔INNOVATIVE FORM
Waiting for Godot (read. “GOD-Oh”)

PLOT

Act One：
• Vladimir and Estragon are near a tree to wait for Godot.
• Pozzo and Lucky enter. Pozzo talks with Vladimir and
Estragon, Lucky, dancing and thinking, makes them
happy.
• After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy tells Vladimir that
Godot will not come that evening.
• Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not
move as the curtain falls.
 ACT TWO：
• The next day, Vladimir and Estragon again near the tree
to wait for Godot.
• Pozzo and Lucky enter again, but Pozzo is blind and
Lucky is dumb.
• Pozzo does not remember meeting the two men before.
• After they leave, Vladimir and Estragon continue to
wait.
• And then the boy enters, he tells Vladimir that Godot
will not come.
• He insists that he did not speak to Vladimir yesterday.
• After he leaves, Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave,
but they do not move again, ending the play.
• Hope
• (Action)
• (Utopia)
End of Action
“It’s not certain” (“What do we
Waiting for Godot:
Plot Cycle
do now?”

“Nothing to be done” “It’s not certain”

Despair
(Statis)
(Dystopia)
 THE SETTING:
• The setting should be interpreted as the antithesis of the
Garden of Eden:
- A desert
- A slanted strata
- Tortured tree, bent to the wind, clinging to existence
- Beyond the void, and in the void
- The great, dead world of the moon
..\..\..\..\Drama\Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot Act
1 (Part 1).mp4