Absurd Drama: An overview

Absurd Drama

The term 'Absurd' had widely used in relation to Music before it gets popularized in the  sphere of literature. In musical discourse absurd denotes to those musical notes which are out of harmony. Similarly, in literature Absurd means those writings which are out of logic, reason and all conventions. The Theatre of The Absurd was emerged in France during the 1950s. The term coined by the theatre critic Martin Esslin. This type of drama is based on the twentieth century ideas like Existentialism, which looked upon man as an isolated creature in the world that had no inherent value or meaning.

Absurdism was the central concern in post world war literature. The term gets popularized after the work 'The Myth of Sisyphus' by Albert Camus. Absurdity can be frequently associated with feelings of loss, purposelessness and bewilderment. To such feeling the practitioners of Absurd Theatre give ample expression often leaving the audience perplexed in the face of disjointed, meaningless or repetitious dialogues, incomprehensible behaviour and plot which deny all notion of logical and realistic development. Absurd plays illustrate humans as a doll in the hands of destiny or menaced by invisible outside forces. This style of writing was first popularized by Eugene Ionesco in his play "The Bald Soprano" and also applied to the works of certain dramatists who were alive in the 1950s including Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Luigi Pirandello, Tom Stoppard and Edward Albee. Their works primarily discarded the traditional elements of drama such as a linear plot, realistic dialogue and recognizable setting.

A typical absurd drama never fulfills the audience's expectation. As we can see in waiting for Godot, audience were eagerly expecting the arrival of Godot, but that never happens in the play. The two tramps Vladimir and Estragon were waiting in a wasteland for the arrival of him. It becomes futile.

Features of Absurd drama

• Absurd drama represents the disorientation of living in an unpleasant and hostile universe.
• It violated all the existing notions regarding drama, thus it is highly experimental and radical.
• Inexpressibility dominates in the actions, language becomes the tool of non-communication.
• Element of dystopia and dark humour.
• The actions inan absurd drama do not unravel a story but presents a pattern of images designed to reflect the perplexity of human's existence in an incomprehensible world.
• The plays often delineate the emptiness and nothingness of life. For instance Beckett's Waiting for Godot revolves around the absence of a character named Godot. While, in Ionesco's Ameede, or how to get rid of it, A playwright and his wife are faced with the problem of trying to get rid of a steadily growing corpse.
• The characters are depicted as being aimless and lost in a world that is beyond their understanding. They are incapable of sensible and rational thought and are often portrayed as autonomous, who can speak only in cliches. They are usually Flat characters.
• slapstick humour is often a part of absurd drama.
• Reticence and silence speak more than words, dramatists like Pinter often use ellipses or dashes for important parts of dialogue.
• Sometimes the characters are depicted as being victimized and intimidated by some external force or person. For instance in Pinter's Birthday Party (1957), Stanley is menaced by Goldberg and McCann.

                                       

Works Cited

•  The Book of literature, Big ideas simply explained
• The Oxford Companion to English Literature 
• A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H Abrams
• A Companion to Literary Forms by Padmaja Ashok