UNIT 5: THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

 The Second World War was a complete turnaround in the perception of

humanity:
- The discovery of the Nazi concentration camps and the horrifying
knowledge of genocide
- The effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- The new atomic race and the Cold War
- The dominant feeling was one of extreme pessimism and the disappearance
of old certainties

 Hope in progress gave way to despair in the ability of human beings to work
together towards a better future

 Existentialism becomes the dominant philosophy (Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert

Camus)
- God is more than ever
- Life has no meaning
- Real communication between human beings is impossible

 The critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1961 eponymous book

 Main characteristics
- Obsession with language as an obstacle to communication
- Reduction of theatricality to its crudest form
- Philosophical themes
- Lack of coherence between word and action
- Meaningless speech
- Absence of plot
- Exacerbated sense of humour – clowns and slapstick routines

 A continental movement: French playwright Jean Genet – The Maids (1947)

Romanian - born but French-adopted Eugene Ionesco – The Bald Prima Donna
(1950), The Chairs (1952) and Rhinoceros (1958)

SAMUEL BECKETT (1906-1989)

 Born in Dublin but lived in Paris

 He worked as secretary for James Joyce, his major influence – interest in
innovation and obsession with language
 During the German occupation of France, he joined the Resistance
 Early post-modernist writer, a bridge between the modernist generation and
the post-modernist generation
  He had an epiphany in 1945 and this marked his career as a novelist and
playwright:
“I realised that Joyce had gone as far as one could in the direction of knowing
more, [being] in control of one’s material. He was always adding to it; you only
have to look at his proofs to see that. I realised that my own way was in
impoverishment, in lack of knowledge and in taking away, in subtracting rather
than in adding “
 He became aware of his own impotence, failure, and ignorance.
 He decided to write in French as a way of countering the excess of style.
 He had begun writing academic essays, poems and fiction.
 His first play, written in French, En Attendant Godot, displays many of the
concerns that appear in the trilogy.
 The play departed from the stage conventions of the time, mainly the idea of
resolution. Described by a critic as the play in which “nothing happens, twice”.
 The best play of the 20th century for the rupture it represented and the influence
it has had on subsequent drama.
 The characters that populate his drama are mostly tramps, based on the figure of
Charlot.
 Influence of O’Casey’s Juno and the Peacock: mixture of tragedy with farce
 Use of somewhat savage black humour – characters are often mutilated: blind,
cripple, sick, and old, on the verge of death and unable to move: “Nothing is
funnier than unhappiness” (Endgame)
 His theatrical style diminished over the years – “dramaticules”: “make it smaller
on the principle that less is more” (notes about the production of That Time)
 The characters are reduced to disembodied elements such as a head, a mouth, an
eye.
 Although all the plays seem to end as they began, there have always been
changes for the worse, the passage of time is seen in the degeneration.
 His plays are designed to be experienced rather than intellectually understood.

Samuel Beckett.

Most important plays:

 Waiting for Godot (1953)

 Endgame (1957)
 Krapp’s Last Tape (1958)
 Happy Days (1961)
 Play (1963)
 Come and Go (1965)
 Not I (1973)
Waiting for Godot:

- The ending sums up the essence of the play: Vladimir says: "Shall we go?",
to which Estragon replies "Yes, let's go", but the stage direction says: "They
do not move“

- The indefiniteness of the stage resembles a post-atomic set design

- The first time that the futility of human existence has been staged with such
clarity

Endgame:

- The name comes from the last stages of a chess game, when there are very
few pieces left and, in this case, resolution is impossible.
- There are four characters, but only one can move, and very badly.
- Hamm is a creator, but he realises that he has lost his creative impulse, gets
distracted and finishes nothing.
- We don’t know if what he tells is fiction or reality. Similarly, it is unclear
whether Clov is his own son.
- Mutual dependence, often sadomasochistic – influence of Genet’s The Maids.
- Nagg and Nell, the parents in the bin, are the comic couple.
- Many relevant elements from the three novels pf the trilogy: the father-child
relationship, infertility seen as both a curse and a blessing, mutual
mistreatment between generations (Molloy), loss of creativity (Malone Dies),
disembodiment (The Unnamable)

Happy Days

- The inexorability of time seen in the grains of sand around the body of the
protagonist, the image of an hourglass

- The comic image of her performing routines are countered not only by her
immobility, but also by the ominous image of the gun

- She insists that everything is as it always was yet there are continual
changes that show human decay

Harold Pinter

o Same background as Amold Wesker: a Jewish family in London’s East End.

o Studied drama and began his career as an actor.
o His theatre has similarities with Genet and Beckett.
 o His plays are best classified as comedies of menace with elements of the Theatre
of the Absurd.
o Beckett’s influence: dispossessed characters, clowns and slapstick routine,
obsession with the failure of human communication and absurd situations.
o His plays focus on the power relationship between human beings – the smallest
scale of the larger political base of power and lack of freedom.
o The characters’ cruelty in the power games they play will influence on the “in-
yer-face theatre”.
o The characters’ silences are often more important than their speech.
o “He was a master of claustrophobia and unease”
o His later works have an overt political theme, dealing with torture and
dictatorship.
o The distrusted religion and was a human rights activist.
o From the 1970s more concerned with the workings of memory and its
unreliability.

Harold Pinter.

Most important plays:

 The Birthday Party (1958)

 The Dumb Waiter (1959)
 The Caretaker (1960)
 The Homecoming (1965)
 Old Times (1971)
 No Man’s Land (1975)
 Betrayal (1978)
 One for the Road (1984)
 Mountain Language (1988)
 Party Time (1991)
 Ashes to Ashes (1996)

The birthday party

- Very poorly received when it was first performed in London.

- One of Pinter’s most important plays – it has all the features of his drama:
violence, everyday terror, a masterful use of language, ambiguity and the
pervasive idea of the workings of power in human relationships.
- He explained that the play showed “how religious forces ruin our lives”
(the couple who tortured Stanley are a Jew and an Irish Catholic)
The Dumb Waiter

- Considered by most critics to be the best of the early period despite its
brevity - it brings together all Pinter’s dramatic traits in a very concise form

- Again a black comedy, the clownish behaviour of the characters is more

evident

- Contrast between the deadly action about to take place and the characters’
absurd chatter - it enhances the comedy but adds to the atmosphere of
menace

- It has come to be read as a political fable against unquestioning obedience

and lack of free thought

The Caretaker

- A triangle, the smallest unstable relationship in which shifting alliances can

be formed and individuals left isolated.
- Another study of the theme of domination and subjugation.
- The play demonstrates the struggle for territory: who owns the house, who
maintains it, who inhabits it, showing that humans are no better than
animals at protecting territory.
- The most disturbing image is the brothers’ final smile – this might be a
game they often play.

The Homecoming

- The atmosphere is crude and misogynistic.

- Freudian twist.
- The play remains as shocking and ambiguous today as when it was first
performed.
- Interpretations have varied because of advances in feminist studies: some
have seen it as the ultimate victimisation of women, while others have read
in it a fable of women’s empowerment and freedom of choice.