Absurd Theatre

Absurdity is the conflict between the innate human desire to search for meaning and the inherent meaninglessness of our existence. Absurdism is the philosophy put forward by the likes of existentialists such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Satre that proposes ways to combat this. Camus, in his 'The Myth of Sisyphys,' looks at this and presents the three solutions.

1. Suicide, which is quickly rejected since it is not truly a solution to the absurd, merely a pointless escape.

2. The Leap of Faith, a philosophical or religious imposition of meaning on our existence, like Kierkegaard's faith in God, which Camus dismisses as a philosophical suicide.

3. Revolution, an acceptance of the absurd, living fully and as much as possible, and finding joy in the struggle.

Through this, 'One must imagine Sisyphys as happy.' This figure of Greek mythology was condemned by the Gods to push a boulder up a hill for all of eternity, a never-ending task. But as he accepts the nature of his existence, he finds happiness. This essay and myth highlights the essence of absurdism

This movement came about after the end of the second world war, after the devastation and return of the world to a state of peace. Many were left feeling almost meaningless as humans tend to ask deep questions like this after periods of suffering, and this was a new strand of existentialism, also accentuated by the further decline of religion - as Friedrich Nietzsche said, 'God is dead, and we have killed him,' meaning that many in society have lost meaning as we have lost faith.

Naturally, as with every other intellectual movement of human history, this found its way into the medium of theatre, in the form of absurd theatre, with writers such as Samuel Beckett and Tom Stoppard, and plays such as Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead encapsulating this period from 1945 to the end of the 60s. However, absurd theatre stretches in both directions of time. It was initially precipitated from Elizabethan and Shakespearean theatre, with existential questions, and other modern existential writers tackled similar questions. Franz Kafka also uses absurd and strange stories (as in Metamorphosis) to comment on the human condition and the meaning of life but is more tailored towards the faults of our society. More recently, Enda Walsh's Ballyturk is a brilliant example of absurd theatre.

Absurd theatre has many different characteristics. Firstly, there is often lots of stage directions, so that movement and physicality are carefully coordinated. Design is often minimalistic and strips the stage back to the actors to focus on the human condition and existence. Many also show a breakdown in language and lots of silence (as with Beckett) and rely even more on physicality. More fundamentally, the situations are often abstract and extreme to highlight the absurdity of our existence. This is a very Kafkaesque idea, making strange of the ordinary (to show truth). Finally the characters, the most important part of this bare theatre relying almost purely on the actor, are undeveloped, illogical and irrational, so that we focus not on them as characters but on the human condition. Moreover, there are two stock characters used - the sad, curious and more intelligent one searching for meaning, and the happier, simple, one-dimensional and repeatable, less intelligent one, who accepts a lack of meaning and is happy therefore - what we imagine Sisyphys. The conflict of these two behaviours creates interest and deep thought.

Look to the blog pages on Brook and Grotowski for suitably absurd practitioners and to the blog pages on Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead for absurd plays.