Absurd Theatre Overview

Study Notes

Absurd theatre's form matches its content, connecting the idea of absurdity with a dramatic form.
Characters' words often don't align with actions on stage.
Plays lack clear narratives or recognizable characters.
Plays feel dreamlike or nightmarish, lacking a beginning or end.
Plays often lack traditional storylines and relatable characters.
Dialogue tends to be incoherent.
Oversimplification of plays is a criticism.
Authors like Albee have criticized the "Theatre of the Absurd" label, arguing for a more nuanced approach to analysis..
Absurdism is a response to the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust.
Plays highlight the senselessness of life.
Examples include Kafka's struggles, Godot in Waiting for Godot, and Pinter's plays.
Plays suggest that individuals can create meaning if life lacks meaning.

Questioned traditional artistic approaches.
Realism was popular in the early 20th century, focusing on realistic depictions of everyday life.
Some artists sought to delve deeper into internal human experiences and emotions.

Avant-garde movements sought to go beyond realism/external representations to explore internal experiences.
- Expressionism, Dadaism, and Surrealism were precursors.
- These movements influenced playwrights like Ionesco and Beckett.

Absurd playwrights experiment with language, deviating from traditional dialogue.
- Example, Beckett uses disconnected conversations in Waiting for Godot.
- Pinter utilizes pauses and everyday questions to highlight unspoken aspects.
Many playwrights, like Albee, Ionesco, and Pinter, were influenced by Beckett.
Tragicomedy: mixing elements of tragedy and comedy in a singular play.
Strange Situations: characters face unique, often bizarre, situations in plays. (Kafkaesque, surreal, and ridiculous situations)

Language Experiments: plays challenge dialogue by using and exploring new languages forms
Tragicomedy: plays use elements of both tragedy and comedy.
Non-Traditional Plots: plays often skip exposition and use unconventional storylines.
Strange Settings: plays demonstrate settings that are surreal, improbable, or ridiculous.
Breaking Traditional Theatre Rules: plays skip exposition and have a lack of a conventional rise-and-fall structure to narratives

Absurdist literature emerged as a means to express the feeling of uncertainty and confusion.
Absurdist plays challenged traditional realist theatrical conventions.
Shows a transition from Modernist to Postmodern.
Characteristics included fragmented narratives, multiple possible truths, and heightened irony.

Plays like Arden's Sergeant Musgrave's Dance used themes of colonialism, wartime guilt, pacifism
Playwrights like Joe Orton used dark humor.

Pinter explored working-class anxieties and power struggles through plays like The Room and The Dumb Waiter.
Stoppard blended absurdism and postmodernism in plays like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Travesties.

Plays like Equus and Amadeus highlighted how theatre could explore deep psychological struggles through stylized performances.

Plays resisted easy categorization (new brutalism, in-yer-face theatre), focusing on violence, intensity, and moral ambiguity (rather than clear-cut labels).
Mark Ravenhill, for instance, challenged audiences through controversial plays.

Playwrights like Walcott and Soyinka explored Caribbean/African experiences, incorporating cultural elements and historical contexts.
Plays often grapple with colonialism's lasting impact and cultural identity.