UNIT 17: THE IDEA OF THE ABSURD

DRAMA
Structure
17.0 Objectives
17.1 Introduction
17.1.1 Beginnings of Drama
17.1.2 Growth of Western Drama
17.1.2.1 Greek Tragedies
17.1.2.2 The Holy Trinity: Aeschylus, Euripides And Sophocles
17.1.2.3 Decline of Greek Drama
17.1.2.4 Roman Drama
17.1.2.5 Decline of Roman Drama And The Rise of The Church
17.1.2.6 From Reformation to the Twentieth Century Drama
17.1.3 Precursors of Absurd Drama
17.2 Theatre of The Absurd
17.2.1 From Existentialism to Absurdism
17.2.2 Few Examples of Absurd Plays
17.2.3 Legacy
17.3 Conclusion
17.4 Check Your Progress: Possible Questions
17.5 Bibliography
17.5.1 Primary Sources
17.5.2 Secondary Sources

17.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to
●● Understand the beginnings of drama as a genre (From Greek Drama
to the Twentieth Century Drama)
●● Locate the idea of the Absurd Theatre in historical context
●● Know about the origins of Absurd Theatre
●● Comprehend the elements of Absurd Theatre and its connection with
existentialism
●● Know about the famous works in the Theatre of the Absurd
●● Scrutinise the importance of the absurd plays in contemporary times

17.1 INTRODUCTION
17.1.1 Beginnings of Drama
To get an idea of the “Absurd drama” first let us know what ‘drama’ is and
also the history of drama in various periods. Drama is an art form that tells
a story through the speech and actions of the characters in the story. Most
drama is performed by actors who impersonate the characters before an
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Absurd Drama audience in a theatre or before television cameras for an audience in their
homes.
Although drama is a form of literature, it differs from other literary forms
in the way it is presented. For instance, a novel also tells a story involving
characters. But a novel narrates a story through a combination of dialogues
and is complete on the printed page. Most drama achieves its greatest effect
when it is performed. Some critics believe that a written script is not really
a play until it has been acted before an audience.
Drama probably gets most of its effectiveness from its ability to give order
and clarity to human experience. The basic elements of drama: feelings,
desires, conflicts, and reconciliations are the major ingredients of human
experience. In real life, these emotional experiences often seem to be a
jumble of unrelated impressions. In drama, however, the playwright can
organize these experiences into understandable patterns. The audience
watches the material of real life with the presented one in a meaningful form
i.e. with the unimportant omitted and the significant emphasized.
Drama is a universal art. Nearly every civilization has had some form of it.
Drama is also an ancient art. Staged performances using actors took place as
long ago as 500 B.C. and probably occurred even earlier. But scholars have
insufficient evidence to state definitely when drama first began. Nor do they
know for certain what led to the creation of dramas. However, they propose
a number of theories. One theory suggests that drama may have originated
from ancient religious ceremonies that were performed to win favour from
gods. In these ceremonies, priests often impersonated supernatural beings
or animals and sometimes imitated such actions as hunting. Stories grew up
around some rites and lasted after the rites themselves had died out. These
myths may have formed the basis of drama.
Another theory suggests that drama originated in choral hymns of praises
sung at the tomb of a dead hero. At some point, a speaker separated from the
chorus and began to act out deeds in the hero’s life. This acted part gradually
became more elaborate and the role of the chorus diminished. Eventually,
the stories were performed as plays, their origins forgotten.
According to a third theory, drama grew out of a natural love of storytelling.
Stories told around campfires re-created victories in the hunt or in battle or
the feats of dead heroes. These stories developed into dramatic retellings of
the events.
17.1.2 Growth of Western Drama
17.1.2.1 Greek Tragedies
Now let us see the growth of western drama. It was born in ancient
Greece. By the 600 B.C. the Greeks were giving choral performances of
dancing and singing at festivals honouring Dionysus, their god of wine and
fertility. Later, they held drama contests to honour Dionysus. The earliest
record of Greek drama dates from 534 B.C. when a contest for tragedy
was established in Athens. The most important period in ancient Greek
drama was from 400 B.C onwards. Tragedies were performed as part of an
important, yearly religious and civic celebration called the City Dionysia.
This festival, which lasted several days offered hotly contested prizes for
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the best tragedy, comedy, acting, and choral singing. Greek tragedy, perhaps The Idea of the Absurd
because it originally was associated with religious celebrations was solemn, Drama
poetic, and philosophic. Nearly all the surviving tragedies were based on
myths. Typically, the main character was an admirable, but not perfect
person confronted with a difficult moral choice. This character’s struggle
against hostile forces ended in defeat and in most Greek tragedies, his or her
death. These tragedies consisted of a series of dramatic episodes separated
by choral odes. The episodes were performed by a few actors, never more
than three on stage at one time during the 400 B.C. The actors wore masks
to indicate the nature of the characters they played. The poetic language and
the idealized characters suggest that Greek acting was dignified and formal.
17.1.2.2 The Holy Trinity: Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles
Of the hundreds of Greek tragedies written, fewer than 35 survive. All but
one was written by three dramatists: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Aeschylus, the earliest of the three, won 13 contests for tragedy. His plays
are noted for their lofty tone and majestic language. He was the master
of trilogy, a dramatic form consisting of three tragedies that focuses on
different phases of the same story. His Oresteia, the only surviving Greek
trilogy, tells how Clytemnestra killed her husband, Agamemnon, and was
then killed by their son Orestes. This trilogy traces the development of the
idea of justice from primitive vengeance to an enlightened and impersonal
justice administered by the state. This development is portrayed in a
powerful story of murder, revenge, remorse, and divine mercy. The chorus
is important in Aeschylus’ plays.
Sophocles is the playwright whose work served as the primary model
for Aristotle’s writing on tragedy. His plays have much of Aeschylus’
philosophic concern but his characters are more fully drawn and his plots
are better constructed. He was also more skilful in building climaxes and
developing episodes. Aeschylus used only two characters on stage at a
time until Sophocles introduced a third actor. This technique increased
the dramatic complexity of Greek drama. Sophocles also reduced the
importance of chorus. His most famous play Oedipus Rex is a masterpiece
of suspenseful storytelling and perhaps the greatest Greek tragedy.
Euripides was not widely appreciated in his own day, but later, his plays
became extremely popular. He is often praised for his realism. His treatment
of traditional gods and myths shows considerable doubt about religion and
he questioned the moral standards of his time. He also showed his interest
in psychology in his many understanding portraits of women. His Medea
describes how a mother kills her children to gain revenge against their father.
The satyr play, a short comic parody of a Greek myth, served as a kind of
humorous afterpiece to the tragedies of a contestant at the City Dionysia. It
may be even older than tragedy. The satyr play used a chorus performing as
satyrs (mythical creatures that were half human and half animal). The actors
and chorus in the tragedies also appeared in the satyr play. Only one satyr
play still exists i.e. Euripides’ Cyclops. It is a parody of Odysseus’ encounter
with the monster Cyclops. The satyr play was a regular part of the Athenian
theatre during the 4th century B.C. But this form of play disappeared when
Greek drama declined after the 2nd century B.C.
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Absurd Drama 17.1.2.3 Decline of Greek Drama
The Greeks did not mix tragedy and comedy in the same play. Greek Old
Comedy, as the comic plays of the 4th century are called, was outspoken
and bawdy. The word comedy comes from the Greek word komoidia which
means merrymaking. The only surviving examples of Old Comedy are by
Aristophanes. He combined social and political satire with fantasy, robust
farce, obscenity, personal abuse, and beautiful lyric poetry. Aristophanes
was a conservative who objected to the social, moral, and political changes
occurring in the Athenian society. In each of his plays, he ridiculed and
criticized some aspect of the communal life of his day.
Tragedy declined after 400 B.C. but comedy remained vigorous. Comedy
changed so drastically however that most comedies written after 338 B.C.
are called New Comedy. Despite their popularity, only numerous fragments
and a single play by the name of The Grouch has survived. The play was
written by Menander, a popular playwright. Most New Comedy dealt with
the domestic affairs of middle-class Athenians. Private intrigues replaced
the political and social satire and fantasy of Old Comedy. In New Comedy,
most plots depended on concealed identities, coincidences, and recognitions.
The chorus provided little more than interludes between episodes.
17.1.2.4 Roman Drama
Post 200 B.C. Greek drama declined and leadership in the art began to pass
to Rome. Today, Greek drama is much more highly regarded than Roman
drama, which for the most part imitated Greek models. Roman drama is
important chiefly because it influenced later playwrights, particularly during
the Renaissance. William Shakespeare and the other dramatists of his day
knew Greek drama almost entirely through Latin imitations of it.
In Rome, tragedy was not as popular as comedy, short farces, pantomime,
and non-dramatic spectacles like battle between gladiators. Roman
theatres were adaptations of Greek theatres. The government supported
theatrical performances as part of the many Roman religious festivals and
wealthy citizens also financed some performances. Admission to theatrical
performances was freehand and thus, the audiences were unruly in the
holiday atmosphere.
It was Livius Andronicus who introduced tragedy in Rome in 240 B.C.
But the dramatic works of Roman tragedian, Lucius Annaeus Seneca still
exist. Though Seneca’s plays were not performed in his lifetime, they were
extremely influential during the Renaissance. Later, Western dramatists
borrowed a number of techniques from Seneca. These techniques included
the five-act form, the use of flowery language, the theme of revenge, the
use of magic rites and ghosts, and the device of the confidant, a trusted
companion in whom the leading character confides.
Plautus and Terence were the forerunners of Roman comedies. Their
plays were just the adaptations of Greek New Comedy. Both these writers
eliminated the chorus from their plays but they added many songs and much
musical accompaniment. Plautus’ humour was robust and his plays were
filled with farcical comic action. Terence’s comedies were more sentimental
and more sophisticated and his humour more thoughtful. His six plays had
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a strong influence on later comic playwrights, especially Moliere in France The Idea of the Absurd
in the 1700’s. Drama

17.1.2.5 Decline of Roman Drama and the Rise of the Church

The Roman theatre gradually declined after the empire replaced the republic
in 27 B.C. After 400 A.D. actors were excommunicated. The rising power
of the church combined with invasions by barbaric tribes brought an end
to the Roman theatre. The last known performances in ancient Rome took
place in A.D.533. Medieval drama flourished from the 900’s to the 1500’s.
The brief playlets were acted by priests as part of the liturgy of the church.
The Resurrection was the first event to receive dramatic treatment. A large
body of plays also grew up around the Christmas story and a smaller number
around other Biblical events. In the church, the plays were performed in
Latin by priests and choirboys.
These plays written in verse taught the Christian doctrine by presenting
Biblical characters as if they lived in the medieval times. Many mystery
plays were rich with comedy. Miracle plays and morality plays were also
popular during the Middle Ages. Miracle plays dramatized the events
from the lives of saints or the Virgin Mary. The action in most of these
plays reached a climax in a miracle performed by the saint. Morality plays
used allegorical characters to teach moral lessons. Purely secular drama
achieved its greatest development in two short forms of drama: the farce
and the interludes. Farces were almost entirely comic and many were based
on folktales. Interludes were originally entertaining skits, probably acted
between courses, during banquets or at other events. The interlude was
especially associated with the coming of professional actors who became
regular parts of many noble household.
17.1.2.6 From Reformation to the Twentieth Century Drama
The Reformation directly affected the history of drama by promoting the
use of national languages other than Latin. The use of these languages led
to the development of national drama. The first such drama to reach a high
level of excellence appeared in England between the years 580 and 1642.
Elizabethan drama was written mainly during the last half of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I, from about 1580 to 1603. Jacobean drama was written
during the reign of King James I (1603-1625). William Shakespeare, the
greatest dramatist of the age, bridged the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods,
but he is generally considered as an Elizabethan playwright. Caroline drama
was written in the reign of King Charles I (1625-1649).
Elizabethan plays developed from the interludes performed by wandering
actors and the classically inspired plays of schools and universities. These
two traditions merged in the 1580’s when a new group of playwrights, many
of them university educated, began writing for professional actors of the
public theatre. Thomas Kyd brought classical influence to popular drama.
He wrote the most popular play of the1500’s, The Spanish Tragedy (1580’s).
It moved freely in place and time as did medieval drama. It showed the
influence of Seneca in its use of a ghost, the revenge theme, the chorus, the
lofty poetic style, and the division of the play into five acts. Kyd wrote this
play in blank verse and established this poetic form as the style for English
tragedy.
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Absurd Drama Christopher Marlowe perfected blank verse in the English tragedy. He wrote
a series of tragedies that centred on a strong protagonist. His work was
filled with sensationalism and cruelty but it included splendid poetry and
scenes of sweeping passion. John Lyly wrote many pastoral comedies. He
mixed classical mythology with English subjects and wrote in a refined and
artificial style. Robert Greene also wrote pastoral and romantic comedies.
His Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1589?) and James IV (1591?) combined
love stories and rural adventures with historical incidents. By 1590, several
dramatists had bridged the gap between the learned and popular audiences.
Their blending of classical and medieval devices with absorbing stories
established the foundation upon which Shakespeare built.
William Shakespeare, like other writers of his time, borrowed from fiction,
histories, myths, and earlier plays. But he developed the dramatic techniques
of earlier writers. His dramatic poetry is unequalled and he had a genius
for probing character, producing emotion, and relating human experience
to broad philosophical issues. Another major playwright of this period
was Ben Jonson. He popularised the comedy of humours. He also wrote
two tragedies on classical subjects and many elaborate spectacles called
masques. Besides Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, several other playwrights
also bridged the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Those were: George
Chapman, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Heywood, and John Marston.
About 1610, English drama began to change significantly. The tragicomedy,
a serious play with a happy ending, increased in popularity. The obsession
of Jacobean and Caroline tragedy with violence, dishonesty, and horror has
appalled many critics. But these plays have also been greatly admired for
their magnificent poetry, their dramatic power, and their unflinching view
of human nature and the human condition. Important Jacobean playwrights
included Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Thomas Middleton, Cyril
Tourneur, and John Webster. Philip Massinger and John Ford were some
of the Caroline playwrights. After Charles I was deposed in the 1640’s and
the Puritans gained control of the Parliament, theatrical performances were
prohibited. The Puritan government closed the theatres in 1642, ending the
richest and most varied era of English drama.
In 1660’s, the Restoration ended the Puritan government. Charles II ascended
the throne. Once again, theatre became legal in England. The Restoration
period is known for comedy of manners and the heroic drama. The former
was identified with the Restoration and it satirized the upper-class society.
The comedy of manners originated largely in the plays of George Etherege
and was perfected in the plays of William Congreve. His play The Way of
the World is often called the finest example of the form. In the works of
William Wycherley, the tone was coarser and the humour more robust.
The heroic play flourished from about 1660 to 1680. It was written in
rhymed couplets and dealt with the conflict between love and honour.
A more vital strain of tragedy developed alongside heroic drama. These
tragedies were written in blank verse imitating Shakespeare. John Dryden’s
All for Love (1677) reshaped the story of Antony and Cleopatra. In 1700’s
the sentimental comedy showed its way and found its full expression in
The Conscious Lovers by Richard Steele. Besides this, two writers started
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writing plays which avoided sentimentality; Oliver Goldsmith and Richard The Idea of the Absurd
Brinsley Sheridan. Drama

Before World War II, there emerged various forms of drama. One among
them was the realistic drama. Henrik Ibsen, Norway’s dramatist, who
is often called “the founder of modern drama”, portrayed realism in his
characters and environment (World Book p. 298). His plays A Doll’s House
(1879) and Ghosts (1882) were explosive attacks against the conventional
morality of his time. George Bernard Shaw supported Ibsen greatly and was
responsible for the spread of his social and artistic ideals in England and he
wrote comedy of ideas in which he used the theatre as a forum for social,
political, and moral criticism.
Symbolism in drama developed in France during the 1880’s. The symbolists
believed that appearance is only a minor aspect of reality. They believed that
reality could be found in mysterious, unknowable forces that control human
destiny. They argued that truth could not be portrayed by logical thought
but could only be suggested by symbols. The most celebrated symbolist
dramatist was Maurice Maeterlinck.
Drama of expressionism was another type of drama that became popular in
Germany between 1910 and 1925. Most German expressionists believed
that the human spirit was the basic shaper of reality. Surface appearance
was important as it reflected an inner vision. To portray this view, the
dramatists of this model used distorted sets, lighting, and costumes, short
jerky speeches, and machine-like movements. The dramatic techniques of
expressionism owed much to the Swedish playwright August Strindberg.
His important plays are A Dream Play (1901) and The Ghost Sonata (1908).
The discontent of the post-World War I appeared in the drama of 1920’s
and 1930’s. The most fruitful attempt to focus the attention on political,
economic, and social realities was epic theatre, developed by the German
dramatist Bertolt Brecht. He exhibited his talent in the famous plays, Mother
Courage and Her Children (1941) and Life of Galileo (1943).
17.1.3 Precursors of ‘Absurd drama’
The mode of ‘absurdist’ plays is tragicomedy. As Nell utters in Endgame:
“nothing is funnier than unhappiness...it is the most comical in the world
(p.14). Esslin cites Shakespeare as an influence on the aspect on the ‘absurd
drama’. Shakespeare’s influence is acknowledged directly in titles of
Ionesco’s Macbeth and Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Friedrich Durrenmatt remarks in his essay “Problems of the Theatre” that
we can achieve the tragic out of comedy. He also adds that Shakespeare’s
comedies are already comedies out of which the tragic arises. Esslin cites
film comedians and music hall artists like Charlie Chaplin, the Keystone
Cops, and Buster Keatonas as direct influences (p.20).
As an experimental form of theatre, many ‘absurd playwrights’ employ
techniques borrowed from earlier innovators. Writers of techniques
frequently mentioned in ‘Theatre of Absurd’ include nineteenth century
poets like Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, the Polish playwright Stanislaw
Ignacy Wilkiewicz, the Russian writer Nikolai Erdman, Bertolt Brecht with
distancing techniques in his ‘Epic theatre’, and August Strindberg through
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Absurd Drama his ‘dream plays’. Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author
makes use of ‘meta theatre’, role playing, plays within plays, and a flexible
sense of the limits of stage and illusion. Another influential playwright was
Guillaume Apollinaire whose The Breasts of Tiresias was the first work to
be called ‘Surreal’.
Likewise, the concept of ‘Pataphysics’ - “science of imaginary solutions”
was also one of the significant precursors of ‘Absurd theatre’. Jarry’s Gester
“Et opinions du docteur Faustroll” (Exploits and Opinion of Dr. Faustroll,
pataphysician) was inspirational to many later absurd playwrights, some
of whom joined the College de ‘Pataphysique which was founded in
honour of Jarry in 1948. Eugene Ionesco, Alfred Arrabal, and Vian were
given the title Transcendent Sartrape of the college de ‘pataphysique’.
The Alfred Jarry Theatre, founded by Antonin Artaud and Roger Vitrac
housed several ‘absurd plays’ including the ones by Ionesco and Adamov.
Artaud was a ‘surrealist ‘and many other members of the ‘surrealist group’
were significant influences on the ‘absurd playwrights’. Absurdism is also
frequently compared to surrealism’s predecessor, Dadaism. Many of the
‘absurdists’ had direct connections with the ‘Dadaists’ and ‘Surrealists’.
Ionesco, Adamov and Arrabal were friends with Surrealists and Beckett
translated many ‘Surrealist’ poems by Breton and others from French into
English.

17.2 THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

Many countries were dramatically changed during World War II (1939-
1945) and the years that followed. These changes affected drama greatly.
Experimental and alternative theatre developed new structures for drama,
challenging traditions in dramatic form and in social values. ‘Theatre of
the absurd’, which emerged in France during the 1950’s, was probably the
most influential new movement in drama after the end of World War II. It
rejected the traditional notions of plot, character, dialogue, and logic. The
‘absurdists’ hoped to express the disorientation of living in a universe they
saw as unfriendly, irrational, and meaningless, and therefore absurd.
17.2.1 From Existentialism to Absurdism
The most important influence on ‘absurd drama’ was the theory of
‘existentialism’. To know about it one needs to have an idea of the philosophy
given by Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre. The critic Martin Esslin coined
the term ‘absurd’ in his 1960 essay “Theatre of the Absurd”. He related
these plays based on a broad theme of the absurd, similar to the way Albert
Camus uses the term in the 1942 essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus” (p.301).
Let us apprehend what Camus states about the ‘absurd’. In his seminal
contribution to the world of’ philosophy of the absurd’, he asks the most
difficult question: why man, sensing the absurdity of his existence, unable
to come to terms with the universe, does not commit suicide? He himself
answers the question with a moving acceptance of the human condition
on its proper terms of revolt, liberty, and passion. He believes that man
selects reason to seek clarity for the incongruities in life which fail him
miserably and the outer universe remains to be mute, unintelligible, and
mysterious. Therefore, he finds absurdity in three opposites: 1) between an
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individual’s desire for a unified self and the inexpugnably dual nature, 2) The Idea of the Absurd
between his passion for understanding and the unreasonable silence of the Drama
world and 3) between man’s aspiration for eternity and his subordination to
temporality. He adds that the sole obstacle, the sole deficiency to be made
good is constituted by premature death. Thus it has no depth, no emotion,
no passion, and no sacrifice and could render equal in the eyes of the absurd
man a conscious life of forty years and lucidity spread over sixty years.
Madness and death are his irreparables. Man does not choose. The absurd
and the extra life it involves therefore do not depend on man’s will, but on
its contrary, which is death. Hence it is altogether a question of luck.
Before analysing the absurd plays it is essential to have an idea of Jean
Paul Sartre’s idea of ‘existentialism’. According to him existence precedes
essence. It means that, first of all man exists, turns up, appears on the scene,
and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives
him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterwards will
he be something and he himself will have made what he will be. Thus, there
is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it. “Indeed, everything
is permissible if God does not exist, and as a result, man is forlorn, because
neither within him not without does he find anything to cling to”. (Jean Paul
Sartre, Translation by Bernard Frechtman- p.276).
The absurd plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently
without meaning and man as a puppet controlled or menaced by invisible
outside forces. Though the term is applied to a wide range of plays, some
characteristics coincide in many of the plays: broad comedy, often similar
to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in
hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue
full of clichés, wordplay and nonsense, plots that are cyclical or absurdly
expansive, either parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the
“well-made play. Playwrights commonly associated with The “Theatre
of the Absurd” include Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Arthur Adamov,
Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Miguet
Mithura, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fernando Arrabal, Vaclav Havel, and
Edward Albee.
17.2.2 Few examples of Absurd Plays
Samuel Beckett portrays only a few characters in his plays. There are four
major characters in his play Waiting for Godot: Estragon, Vladimir, Pozzo,
Lucky and Boy, who just appears twice in each act. Vladimir and Estragon
occupy the maximum length in the play while Pozzo and Lucky as outsiders
come to their world as outsiders and remain for some time. Both Vladimir
and Estragon are tied up to an appointment with some Godot of their
knowledge. Beckett makes reasonable attempt at presenting the dramatic
moments in their act of waiting and enabling the reader to accept the
portrayal of the two boys in their life as a process in continuation. Estragon
and Vladimir, in order to continue with the tedium of time, talk on different
subjects and remain absorbed in futile acts till it is night and the same thing
is repeated in the next act. Pozzo and Lucky enter into the dramatic world
as passersby and exchange views with them. The small Boy, who acts as a
messenger, prefers to deliver the message from his master Godot and talks
something about it to them. In the second act, the Boy reappears and enacts
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Absurd Drama the same thing. The drama ends with the assumption that their waiting will
continue till they meet Godot.
Another significant playwright belonging to the ‘absurd’ tradition is
Eugene Ionesco, a playwright of Rumanian origin. Ionesco and Beckett are
contemporary playwrights inhabiting the same country, France. If the play
Waiting for Godot deals with the theme of the impossibility of possession
of love and friendship, a mere illusion, Ionesco’s play The Chairs speaks
about the impossibility of communication. Ionesco seems to multiply
objects while Beckett seems to rarify them. Jacques Dubois compares them
both and adds that “man is crushed by the presence or absence of material
goods” (Urmila Devi’s p.75). There are two miserable characters in this
play: a husband and a wife. An old man, the husband has accumulated vast
knowledge and wants to impart a message before his final departure. He has
invited some important persons to hear his message. The guests are invisible.
They keep on arriving until finally the stage is filled with chairs. The orator
in the play has been entrusted with the task of speaking on his behalf. When
the invisible guests have arrived and all is ready, the old couple jump to
their death, confident that their mission of life has been fulfilled. The orator
mumbles inarticulately. He is deaf and dumb. The play is about our illusion
and the way we waste our lives. We long for self-justification. We can’t face
facts. We waste our time, look for meanings that are non-existent. The search
for meaning and desire for justification are characteristics of the drama of
the ‘absurd’. Here, Ionesco is successful in achieving the breaking-up of
conventional theatrical forms, a distinct and forceful contribution to the
philosophy of the’ absurd’. Nothing is more unbearable than the orator’s
impotence. Life according to the playwright “is imprisoned in man’s own
separate sound-proof cubicle” as remarked by E.Wellworth (p.59). The play
satirises “the emptiness of polite conversation” according to Esslin (p.148).
The plot repeats the message of hope in Waiting for Godot. The professional
orator represents the reality of life in the sense of being deaf and dumb. Unable
to speak, the orator attempts to express himself by writing on the blackboard.
But what he writes is merely a jumble of scribbling. The meaningless letter,
unable to convey any sense presents a good dramatization of the difficulty
of communication. Similarly, the multiplication of the chairs, all empty, is
a depiction of hollowness and emptiness of life and the human condition. It
also offers a neat picture of the incapability of human beings and the logic
they use.
Another significant French ‘absurd’ playwright is Arthur Adamov. The
general atmosphere prevailing in the works of Adamov is that of anxiety
and futility. Anxiety, the gift of the present age and the futility of human
existence recently being realised, became the themes of his writings. Like
all other comrades of ‘absurd theatre’ Adamov has a thoroughly passionate
outlook on life. The themes he has explored are mainly isolation, alienation,
and failure to face an opposition. Professor Taranne is one of the four
significant plays written in the tradition of the ‘absurd’. The play deals with
Professor Taranne, a distinguished scholar who has been invited to lecture
in Belgium. It is supposed that the notebook he has contains the points for
his lecture. But in reality, the notebook consists mostly of empty pages,
although the Professor insists that he had used it up entirely. A roll of paper
is delivered to him. It is the seating plan of the dining room of an ocean
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liner, with his place marked Taranne, at the table of honour. Jean, a woman The Idea of the Absurd
relative or secretary brings a letter that has arrived for the Professor. It is Drama
from Belgium, from the rector of the University. This will confirm Taranne’s
claims. But, in fact, it is an angry refusal to invite him again. His lectures
have been found to be plagiarisms of those of the famous Professor Menard.
The play Professor Taranne is significant since it expresses the hollowness,
the meaninglessness, and the blankness of the world. It verifies further the
belief that nothing is real and everything in this land is delusive. The professor
is pathetically left alone and his loneliness becomes so intolerable that he
begins to undress himself in an indecent way. This indecent undressing
and losing of balance are not merely absurd but intolerably pathetic too.
It is nothing but the nightmare of man trying to hold onto his identity and
unable to establish conclusive proof of it. This play confirms that activity
is futile and all claims lead to nothingness because death will blot out all
achievements.
Adamov is grouped with the writers of ‘absurd plays’ mainly because of
his technique of paradox. His plays do not present a protest theme but they
lean towards following the technique of paradox as is clear from the play
Professor Taranne. The hero of this play, “Professor Taranne is an active
scholar and a fraud, a responsible citizen, and an exhibitionist, an optimistic
hard-working paragon and a self-destructive slothful pessimistic person”
(Esslin, p.106).
Edward Albee, an American playwright had the capacity to combine the
two “intellectually incompatible” elements of the American cultural force
and the European Absurd tradition (Henry Knepler, p.275). The Americans
believe in the success stories of Horatio Algers which are the stories of the
American Dream. But the “absurd playwrights “ attempt to make man face
up to the human condition as it really is and free him from illusions that
are bound to cause him disappointments as Esslin states in The Theatre
of the Absurd “the dignity of man lies in his ability to face reality in all its
senselessness” (p.238). Albee uses the themes of all ‘absurd playwrights’ of
Europe to portray the human conditions of isolation, alienation, loneliness,
truth, and illusion with an exclusive American idiom.
The Europeans believe that man’s attempt to snatch dignity and stature
results in his becoming more absurd. But through his sacrificial death of
Jerry in the play The Zoo Story, Albee proclaimed to the world that dignity
could be attained. He informed to the world that if communication was
difficult and pointless as in “absurd drama” it was not from “the absurdity of
existence but rather from man’s failure to face the horror of his metaphysical
situation”. Further, he sees man’s impotence and absurdity resulting from
his own making and hence, “no external forces could be made scapegoat”
(Bigsby, p.xviii). Another difference is that he ends in hope and affirmation
which is unimaginable to the European absurdists. In Waiting for Godot
no one comes, nothing happens, and it is terrible. In Ionesco’s The Chairs
the old couple commit suicide leaving a “message” to be delivered by the
deaf and dumb speaker to the invisible listeners; bleak world with no hope
for modern man. But Albee ends his plays with a note of affirmation and
hope to fall in line with America’s cultural tradition. In his play Who is
afraid of Virginia Woolf after the utter disillusionment of her riotous and
debaucherous life, Martha pins her hope on her “Just...us” and in turn,
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Absurd Drama George puts his hand gently on her shoulder (Collected Plays of Albee
p.170). To cater to his optimistic American audience Albee ended his play
American Dream through the senior character Grandma “So, let’s leave
things as they are right now...while everybody’s happy...while everybody’s
got what he wants...Goodnight, dears” (Collected Plays of Albee p.148).
17.2.3 Legacy
Elements of “The Theatre of the Absurd” can be viewed in later playwrights,
from more avant-garde or experimental playwrights like Suzan Lori Parks
in The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and The
American Play and realistic playwrights like David Mamet in Glengarry
Glen Ross, which Mamet dedicated to Harold Pinter. Irish playwright
Martin Mc Donagh in his play Pillowman addresses some of the themes
and uses some of the techniques of ‘absurdism’, especially reminiscent of
Beckett and Pinter.

17.3 CONCLUSION
What then has become of the wonderful new theatre, this movement that
produced some of the most exciting and original dramatic works of the
20th century? Conventional wisdom, perhaps, suggests that the “theatre of
the absurd” was a production of a very specific point in time and because
that time has passed, it has gone the way of the dinosaur. One can agree
with Martin Esslin and add that every artistic movement that has genuine
content contributes to an enlargement of human perception, creates new
movements of human expression, opens up new areas of experience and it
is “bound to be absorbed into the mainstream of development” (p.78). And
this is what happened with the Theatre of the Absurd, which apart from
having been in fashion, undoubtedly, was a genuine contribution to the
permanent vocabulary of dramatic expression. It was also absorbed into the
mainstream of the tradition from which it had never been entirely absent.
The playwrights of post-absurdist era have at their disposal, a uniquely
enriched vocabulary of dramatic technique.

17.4 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE

QUESTIONS
1. What do you know about the writers and their techniques that inspired
the Absurd drama?
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
2. Write a note on the dramatists who carried on the themes and
techniques of Absurd Theatre.
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
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3. What is Absurd Theatre? Elucidate with some examples. The Idea of the Absurd
Drama
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………

17.5 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

17.5.1 Primary Sources
1. Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Pr, 1958.
2. Beckett, Samuel. Endgame: A Play in One Act. Followed by Act
without Words. NewYork: Grove Pr., 1958. Print.
3. Edward Albee. The Collected Plays of Edward Albee. Vol. 1. 1958-65.
New York: The Overlook P, 2004.
17.5.2 Secondary Sources
1. Bigsby, C.W.E. Confrontation and Commitment_ A Critical
Introduction to Twentieth Century American Drama. Vol. 2. London:
Cambridge UP, 1984.
2. Camus, Albert. Absurd Freedom. Translation. V.Spanos. New York:
Thomas Y Cromwell Companion P, 1834.
3. Culik, Dr.John. Ionesco. Theatre of the Absurd. Jerome P.Crabb.
Google.com, Sep 3, 2006.
4. Dubois, Alex. Beckett and Ionesco. Modern Drama. Vol. IX. 3 (Dec
1966): 285
5. E.Wellworth, George. The Theatre of Protest and Paradox. New
York: UP, 1961. p.59.
6. Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. New York: Doubleday,
1961.
7. Knepler, Henry. Edward Albee: Conflict of Tradition. Modern Drama
X. 3 (Dec 1967): 274.
8. Paolucci, Anne. Albee and Restructuring of the Modern Stage. Studies
in American Drama (1986): 14-15.
9. C.Roudane, Matthew. Understanding Edward Albee. Columbia:
University of South Carolina P, 1987.
10. Who is afraid?: Toward the marrow. Cambridge Companion to
Edward Albee. ed. Stephen Bottoms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP,
2005. p.39-57.
11. The World Book Encyclopaedia Vol. 5.
12. Cornwall, Neil. The Absurd in Literature Manchester: Manchester
UP, 2006.
13. Durrenmtt, Friedrich. Problems of the Theatre. The Problems of Mr.
Mississippi. New York: GroveP, 2006.
14. Devi, Urmila. Contemporary American Drama with special reference
to Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Jack Gelbert, and Jack Richardson.
812.5409 ASRC Library.
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