Theater of the absurd. The search for the meaning of life, or the fight against ideals

Looking through the plays of some playwrights, for example, Eugene Ionesco, one can come across this phenomenon in the world of art, like the theater of the absurd. To understand what contributed to the emergence of this trend, you need to turn to the history of the 50-ies of the last century.

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

In the fifties, the first appeared productions, the plot of which seemed to viewers absolutely meaningless. The main concept of these plays was the alienation of man from the social and physical environment. In addition, during the action on the stage, actors were able to combine incompatible concepts.

New plays destroyed all the laws of drama and did not recognize any authority. Thus, all cultural traditions were challenged. This theater phenomenon, which to some extent denied the existing political and social system, was the theater of the absurd. This concept was first used by theatrical critic Martin Esslen only in 1962. But some playwrights did not agree with this term. For example, Eugene Ionesco proposed to name the new phenomenon "the theater of ridicule".

History and sources

At the source of the new direction were several French and one Irish author. The biggest popularity was won by the viewer Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett. Jean Genet and Arthur Adamov also contributed to the development of the genre.

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

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 of the absurdity of human existence. For the first time this theme was fully developed in A. Camus, whose significant influence on the work of F. Kafka and F. Dostoyevsky. However, the theater of the absurd was designated and brought to the stage by E. Ionesco and S. Beckett.

Features of the new theater

As already mentioned, a new trend in theatrical art denied the classical drama. Common characteristics for him were:

- fantastic elements, which in the play coexist with reality;

- the emergence of mixed genres: tragicomedy, comic melodrama, tragifars - which began to supplant "pure";

- use in productions of elements that are characteristic of other arts (chorus, pantomime, musical);

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

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

Types of absurdity

The fact that a new direction in the theater had several ancestors at once explains the division of absurdity into species:

1. Nihilistic absurdity. This is the work of the already famous E. Ionescu and Hildesheimer. Their plays are different in that they can not understand the subtext of the game throughout the entire performance.

2. The second kind of absurdity reflects the universe chaos and, as one of its main parts, a person. In this vein, the works of S. Beckett and A. Adamov were created, which sought to emphasize the lack of harmony in human life.

3. Satirical absurdity. As the name itself becomes clear, the representatives of this direction Durrenmatt, Grass, Frisch and Havel tried to ridicule the absurdity of the modern 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 was held in Paris.

A characteristic feature of the production of "Bald Singer" is that the one that should have been the main character does not appear on stage. On the stage there are only two married couples whose actions are absolutely static. Their speech is inconsistent and full of clichés, which further reflects the picture of the absurdity of the surrounding world. Such incoherent, but absolutely typical remarks heroes repeat again and again. Language, which by its nature is called to make communication easy, in the play only hinders him.

In Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, two absolutely inactive heroes are in constant expectation of a certain Godot. Not only does this character never appear throughout the course of the action, nor does anyone know. It is noteworthy that the name of this unknown hero is associated with the English word God, ie. "God". Heroes recall incoherent fragments from their lives, besides they are not left feeling of fear and uncertainty, because the way of actions that could protect a person is simply not there.

Thus, the theater of the absurd proves that the meaning of human existence can only be found in understanding that it does not make sense.