This new phenomenon in the theatrical art made itself felt in the early 1950s. plays "Bald Singer" (1950) and "Waiting for Godot" (1952). The strange works of Eugene Ionesco and Semuel Beckett sparked a heated debate among critics and audiences. The “absurdists” were accused of extreme pessimism and destruction of all the theater canons. However, already at the end of the 1960s. Beckett won the Nobel Prize for Waiting for Godot, and Ionesco's Thirst for Hunger went to the Comedie Francaise. Why has the attitude of society changed in the theater of the absurd?
I must say that in the second half of the XX century. in their tragically pessimistic vision of the world, the representatives of the theater of the absurd were not alone. In the philosophical works of Sartre, in the literary experiments of Faulkner, Kafka, Camus, the idea was expressed with intense expression that modern manwho has lost faith in God, in the omnipotence of science or in progress, “lost” the meaning of life, lives in anticipation of death. As Faulkner put it, "life is not a movement, but a monotonous repetition of the same movements." Such a “discovery” makes people feel a sense of confusion and alienation, to realize the “absurdity” of their existence.
Thus, the ideas of the representatives of the new theatrical direction fully corresponded to the “spirit of the times”. At first, critics and audiences were “embarrassed” by the deliberate combination of obvious tragedy with equally frank irony, which permeated the dramas of Beckett, Ionesco, Jenne, Pinter, Arrabal. In addition, it seemed that the plays of “absurdists” could not be staged on stage: they lacked the usual “full-fledged” images, there was no intelligible plot, no intelligible conflict, and the words lined up in almost meaningless chains of phrases. These works were not at all suitable for realistic theater. But when the experimental directors took on them, it turned out that the drama of the absurd provides the richest opportunities for original stage solutions. Theatrical convention has revealed in the plays of the "absurdists" a plurality of semantic layers, from the most tragic to quite life-affirming, because in life, despair and hope are always near.
And onesco
Eugene Ionesco 
French playwright romanian origin, one of the founders of the aesthetic trend of absurdism, a recognized classic of the theatrical avant-garde of the 20th century. Member of the French Academy.
Ionesco himself (born 1912) has repeatedly emphasized that he expresses an extremely tragic worldview. His plays "predict" the transformation of an entire community of people into rhinos ("Rhino" - 1960), narrate about killers wandering among us ("Selfless Killer" - 1957), depict unsafe aliens from antiworlds ("air pedestrian" - 1963).
The playwright seeks to lay bare the danger of a conformist consciousness that absolutely depersonalizes a person. To achieve his artistic goal, Ionesco decisively destroys the seemingly harmonious logic of our thinking, parodying it. In the comedy "The Bald Singer" he reproduces the "automated", "cliché" worldview of his heroes, creates a phantasmagoria performance, exposing the absurdity of trivial phrases and banal judgments.
The famous director Peter Brook was one of the first to appreciate the stage possibilities of the drama of the absurd.
In "Victims of Duty" (1953) we are talking about people who consider themselves obliged to fulfill any requirements of the state, to be by all means loyal citizens. The play is based on the method of transforming images, changing the masks of characters. This method of external transformation of a person, which, however, does not change his essence, but only exposes his inner emptiness, is one of the favorites in Ionesco's work. He uses it in one of his most famous plays, Chairs (1952). The heroine of the play, Semiramis, appears now as the wife of the old man, now as his mother, at the same time the old man himself, now a man, now a soldier, now a “marshal of this house”, now an orphan. The people Ionesco portrays are victims of the utilitarian goals of life; they cannot go beyond the narrow circle of routine, are blind from birth, crippled by cliches. The lack of spiritual aspirations makes them prisoners who do not want to be released.
Beckett
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
“We owe Beckett some of the most impressive and most distinctive dramatic works of our time.” Peter Brooke
Irish writer, poet and playwright. Representative of modernism in literature. One of the founders of the theater of the absurd. He gained worldwide fame as the author of the play Waiting for Godot, one of the most significant works of world drama of the 20th century. Laureate Nobel Prize on literature 1969. Having an Irish passport, he lived most of his life in Paris, writing in English and French.
Beckett, unlike Ionesco, is interested in a different range of issues. main topic his creativity is loneliness. Beckett's heroes need communication, soul mates, but by virtue of their own structure (or the structure of the world?) they are deprived of these necessary things. All their lives they gaze into their inner world, trying to correlate it with the surrounding reality, but their conclusions are inconsolable, and their existence is hopeless.
This is how Vladimir and Estragon appear before us - the characters in the tragicomedy Waiting for Godot. It was no accident that they found themselves on a deserted road, the only sign of which is a withered tree. This is a symbol of the heroes' alienation from life. They try to remember the past, but the memories are vague and confused, they try to understand what led them to complete loneliness, but they are not able to do this. The dialogue and the accompanying actions are built like a sad clownery. Vladimir and Estragon are surrounded by endless space, a huge world, but it seems to be closed for the heroes.
Beckett also uses the symbol of isolation in plays such as The Game (1954), Happy Days (1961), Krapp's Last Ribbon (1957), thus revealing the incompatibility of his characters with the environment. “Nobody comes, nothing happens” - this phrase from “Waiting for Godot” becomes the leitmotif of Beckett's drama, which tells the story of a man who has lost his life orientations, turned almost into a phantom. The playwright's heroes themselves are not quite sure that they still exist. The instruction of Vladimir and Estragon, which they give to the boy sent by Godot, is noteworthy: "Tell him that you saw us."
Unlike Ionesco or Beckett, Mrozek prefers almost realistic manner construction of dramatic action.
An important feature artistic method Beckett is a combination of poetry with platitude. The playwright then lifts the viewer to the heights of the struggle of the human spirit, then plunges him into the abyss of the base, and sometimes grossly physiological.
Beckett's plays are always mysterious: they require sophisticated stage interpretations, so the playwright personally embodied some of his works on stage. Thus, the mini-tragedy "The Sound of Footsteps" was staged by the author in West Berlin. A special place in the work of Beckett is occupied by the miniature "Decoupling" (1982), written especially for the famous actor J.-L. Barro. In it, an assistant director prepares a performer for a role in one of Beckett's plays. He never said a word.
Wife
Zhenet: “I have never reproduced life, but life itself involuntarily gave birth to me or highlighted, if they already existed in my soul, images that I then tried to convey through characters or events.”
Jean Genet (1910-1986). Controversial French writer, poet and playwright. The main characters of his works were thieves, murderers, prostitutes, pimps, smugglers and other inhabitants of the social bottom.
The most extravagant of the representatives of the theater of the absurd is Jean Genet. As a ten-year-old boy, he was convicted of theft and ended up in a correctional colony, where, in his own words, he enthusiastically joined the world of vice and crime. Later he served in the Foreign Legion and roamed the ports of Europe. In 1942 he was sent to prison, where he wrote the book "Our Lady of Flowers"; in 1948 he was sentenced to exile for life in a colony. However, many cultural figures stood up for the writer already known by that time, and he was pardoned.
Zhenya's main task is to challenge bourgeois society, which he fully managed to achieve with talented but scandalously shocking plays, which include "The Maids" (1947), "Balcony" (1956), "Negroes" (1958) and "Screens ”(1961).
J.-P. Sartre supported the "absurdists", wrote reviews of their plays, he owns a book about the life and work of Genet.
"The Handmaids" is one of Genet's most famous dramatic works. It tells how the sisters Solange and Claire, spared by their mistress, decide to take possession of her property by poisoning the mistress. To this end, they slander her friend, trying to get him to go to prison. But Monsieur is suddenly freed, and the insidious sisters are exposed. Although the plot “suggests” a melodramatic development of the action, “The Handmaids” is built in a completely different, grotesque way. In the absence of Madame, the sisters alternately portray her, transforming themselves into their mistress so much that they forget about themselves, temporarily freeing themselves from the unenviable role that they play in reality. This is a play about a life in which dream and reality collide in an ugly form. In the drama of Genet, as a rule, completely fictional, incredible events appear in which the real world familiar to us is fancifully altered, distorted, which allows the author to express his attitude towards him.
A Rrabal and Pinter
Fernando Arrabal
Spanish screenwriter, playwright, film director, actor, novelist and poet. Lives in France since 1955.
The Spanish playwright Fernando Arrabal (born 1932) was fond of Calderon and Brecht in his youth, greatly influenced by these authors. His first play "Picnic" was staged in 1959 in Paris. The heroes of the play Sapo and Sepo are soldiers of two armies at war with each other. Sapo takes Sepo prisoner. It turns out that the soldiers have a lot in common.
Both do not want to kill anyone, both are ignorant in military affairs, and participation in battles has not weaned them off from the habits of a peaceful life: one knits a sweater in between shootings, and the other makes rag flowers. Ultimately, the heroes come to the conclusion that all the other soldiers also do not want to fight, and it is necessary to say this out loud and go home. Inspired, they dance to cheerful music, but at this moment a machine-gun fire destroys them, making it impossible to fulfill their plan. The absurdity of the play's situation is deepened by the fact that Sapo's parents, who suddenly came to the front to visit their son, also act in it.
Arrabal's work is characterized by the opposition of the deliberate childishness of his heroes to cruelty and the circumstances in which they have to exist. Among the most famous works of the playwright are "Two Executioners" (1956), "First Communion" (1966), "The Garden of Pleasure" (1969, "Inquisition" (1982).
Harold Pinter
English playwright, poet, director, actor, public figure. One of the most influential British playwrights of his time. 2005 Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature.
The artistic method of Harold Pinter (1930 - 2008), author of the plays “Birthday” (1957), “Dumb Waiter” (1957), “Watchman” (1960), “Landscape” (1969), is close to expressionism. His dark tragicomedies are inhabited by mysterious characters whose conversations parody the usual forms of human communication. The plot, the construction of the plays is in contradiction with their apparent credibility. Looking at the bourgeois world as if through a magnifying glass, Pinter in his own way depicts the suffering of people who find themselves on the sidelines of life.
Source - Large Illustrated ENCYCLOPEDIA
Theater of the Absurd - Ionesco, Beckett, Genet, Arrabal and Pinter updated: August 31, 2017 by the author: website
Features of the "theater of the absurd"
The theater of the absurd (absurdity, nonsense) is one of the modernist directions of theatrical art of the 20th century, which arose in France in the 1950-60s. In absurd plays, the world is presented as a meaningless, logicless pile of facts, actions, words and destinies. The principles of absurdism were most fully embodied in the dramas The Bald Singer (50) by the playwright Ionesco and Waiting for Godot (53) by Beckett.
In practice, theater of the absurd denies realistic characters, situations and all other relevant theatrical techniques. Time and place are uncertain and changeable, even the simplest causal relationships are destroyed. Pointless intrigues, repetitive dialogues and aimless chatter, dramatic inconsistency of actions - everything is subordinated to one goal: to create a fabulous, and maybe even terrible, mood.
The basis of the drama was the destruction of the dramatic material. There is no local and historical concreteness in the plays. A significant part of the plays of the theater of the absurd take place in small rooms, rooms, apartments, completely isolated from the outside world. The temporal sequence of events is destroyed. A person in an absurd world is the personification of passivity and helplessness. He cannot realize anything except his own helplessness. He is deprived of freedom of choice.
The main theme of all anti-plays is the absurdity of the world, which manifests itself in the violation of logical connections between objects and phenomena, in the meaninglessness of reality. This is demonstrated with:
- 1) Irony, farce, parody, grotesque.
- 2) Destruction of linguistic forms, intentional illogical phrases, language automatism. The motive of "getting stuck in words" appears, like in a quagmire.
- 3) Habitual logical cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena and objects are broken and replaced by their random or associative cohesion. The logic of dreams is also used, which does not obey the control of consciousness.
- 4) Metaphorical transmission of a feeling of shock, fear, transmission of surprise in front of life. These feelings will certainly appear as soon as a person realizes that all his life values \u200b\u200bare meaningless and there is an illusion. Designed to draw the attention of an ordinary person to the tragedy of life, because in his everyday life a person is not inclined to think about the issues of life and death and gets bogged down in vulgarity.
- 5) Using the "borderline situation".
- 6) The main motive: "death as decay, decay, silence."
- 7) The literal realization of metaphors and neologisms - this is what fiction in antidrama is based on.
- 8) The connection between the tragic and the comic.
- 9) Using "minus tricks". "Minus-trick" is a significant rejection of the pictorial principles of a traditional character (intrigue, action, characters, etc.). For example, anti-drama heroes are anti-heroes. In Ionesco's early plays, the characters have no individual traits, they are “puppet” heroes. The actions of the characters are determined not by their characters, but by the situation in which they find themselves. Also, the play is destroyed at the genre level, then episodes, remarks and phrases.
- 10) The place of action and the time in the theater of the absurd are often abstract, this emphasizes their universality ("always and everywhere").
- 50g. in Paris, Ionesco's play "The Bald Singer" was staged, at the same time the first "anti-plays" by Arthur Adamov appeared. Eugene Ionesco (1912-94) called his theater “anti-thematic, anti-ideological, anti-realist,” and contrasted it with all versions of “engaged” theater. In The Bald Singer, the clock lost its ability to measure time, because time as an objective category lost its meaning along with the outside world, which has lost its reality. Words seem to break off the chain, since they are not held back by any objectively existing reality. In Chairs (51), "reality", that is, the characters appearing on the stage, according to the author's instructions, should seem extremely unreal, while the characters remaining invisible create the impression of absolutely authentic, the impression of a crowd filling the scene through which it is impossible get through.
In “Rhinos (59)” tells about the strange transformation of the inhabitants of a certain settlement into rhinos, which seems to everyone to be a normal and natural thing, even desirable due to the devaluation of everything human. This tragicomedy can be read as a satirical exposure of fascism and totalitarianism. Also the tragicomedy "The King Dies" (62) - about humanity, subject to death, stricken with incurable infirmity, about reality itself, which disappears along with the king at the moment of his death, dissolving into nothingness. The triumph of death, the extermination of everyone and everything is also demonstrated in the story of the death of the city composed (Games of Massacre 70).
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) In his novels ("Murphy", "Molloy") the fundamental idea was formed: "there is nothing more real than nothing", which is realized in Beckett's "anti-dramas". Beckett's works are distinguished by minimalism, the use of innovative techniques, and philosophical themes. In most of his works, he put his characters in the extreme framework of existence, in order to focus on the essential aspects of human existence. Despite the fact that Beckett boldly penetrates into the depths of the primordial mystery and horror of human existence, he is predominantly a comic writer. Laughter should arise at the sight of that stupid self-righteousness and consciousness of its own significance, with which a person surrenders to illusory and trifling attractions. Ultimately, Beckett's dramas do not leave a gloomy and depressing impression, but bring the liberating catharsis that has been the goal of every theater from its very inception.
In the play Waiting for Godot, which made Beckett famous (53), the action boils down to waiting for a certain Godot, and the characterization of the “inactive persons,” Vladimir and Estragon, is completely exhausted by this state, since they do not remember anything, know nothing, and know nothing. In a small "Comedy" (66), the characters - two numbered women and a man - almost lose their ability to speak, without acquiring, however, the qualities of the faces of "actors": they lean out of the jugs and say something when a ray of light falls on them, and in the dark they plunge into nothingness.
In the middle of the 20th century, a phenomenon called "theater of the absurd" appeared in European drama. It has become truly innovative and unusual for the viewer accustomed to classical "logical" performances. But, despite this, the new art aroused curiosity and interest. What is the theater of the absurd and what rethinking has it received today?
Description
The focus of the absurdist play is not action and intrigue, but the author's perception and individual understanding of a problem. Moreover, everything that happens on the stage is devoid of logical connection. This is done so that the viewer is confused, able to get rid of the patterns in his mind and look at his life from several angles at once.
At first glance, the world in such "illogical" plays appears as a chaotic, senseless heap of facts, characters, actions, words, in which there is no definite place and time of action. However, upon careful consideration, the logical connection between all these elements is present, only it is strikingly different from what we were used to before. The most striking theatrical embodiments of the principles of absurdism were the plays by E. Ionesco "The Bald Singer" and S. Beckett "Waiting for Godot". This is a kind of parody (or philistinism) of the bourgeois world of comfort, its fascisation. In these plays, one can clearly observe the disintegration of the connections between word and action, the violation of the dialogue structure itself.
Despite the seriousness and scale of the social problems involved, the world of the theater of the absurd is incredibly comical. Playwrights show reality, society is already in that phase of decay, when nobody is sorry. Therefore, in plays of this genre, parodies, cynicism, and laughter reactions are readily used. The viewer is clearly given to understand that it is useless and pointless to fight this surreal world of absurdity. You just need to believe in it and accept it.
History
It is noteworthy that the very term “theater of the absurd” appeared after the emergence of innovative productions. It belongs to the theater critic Martin Esslin, who published a book in 1962 under that title. He drew parallels between the new dramatic phenomenon and the philosophy of existentialism of A. Camus, Dadaism, poetry from non-existent words and the avant-garde art of the early 20th century. All this to a certain extent, according to the critic, “educated” the theater of the absurd and shaped it as it appeared before the audience.
It should be noted that such a creative approach to drama has long remained in disgrace from formidable critics. However, after World War II, the genre began to gain popularity. Its main ideologists are considered to be four masters of the word: E. Ionesco, S. Beckett, J. Jeunet and A. Adamov. Despite belonging to the same theatrical genre, each of them still had its own unique technique, which was more than the concept of "absurd". By the way, E. Ionesco himself did not accept the new term, saying “theater of ridicule” instead of “theater of the absurd”. But Esslin's definition, despite persistence and criticism, remained in art, and the genre gained popularity throughout the world.
Origins
Attempts to create a theater of the absurd were made long before the European wave in Russia, in the 1930s. The idea belonged to the Association Real Art (OBERIUTS), or rather, Alexander Vvedensky. In a new genre, he wrote the plays "Minin and Pozharsky", "God is all around", "Christmas tree at the Ivanovs" and others. Daniil Kharms, a writer, poet and member of OBERIU, was his companion in writing.
In Russian drama of the late 20th century, the theater of the absurd can be seen in the plays of L. Petrushevskaya, V. Erofeev and others.
Modernity
Today this theatrical genre is quite widespread. And, as a rule, the avant-garde phenomenon (as in its historical past) is associated with small (private) theaters. A striking example is the modern Theater of the Absurd by Gauguin Solntsev, a famous Russian freak artist. In addition to touring performances under the motto "Our whole life is a theater", he gives lessons acting, which, according to the author's opinion, are useful not only on stage, but also in everyday life.
Other theater groups exist and develop in this genre.
Sparrow
InArodny Theater of the Absurd "Sparrow" is one of the most popular troupes. It was created in 2012 in Kharkov. At first it was only a duet of Vasily Baidak (Uncle Vasya) and Alexander Serdyuk (Kollman). Today the Sparrow consists of six artists. All participants have higher education, but not acting. The name of the collective migrated from KVN. And the word "foreign" is deliberately misspelled. Posters and performances of "Sparrow" are always bright, not devoid of humor, farce and, of course, absurdity. The guys come up with all the plots of the performances themselves.
In music
The avant-garde genre is reflected not only in literature and performing arts, but also in music. So in 2010, the eighteenth studio album of the "Picnic" group, "Theater of the Absurd", was released.
The musical group was formed in 1978 and still exists. He began to work in the style of Russian rock and over time acquired an individual sound with the addition of symphonic keyboards and exotic instruments of the peoples of the world.
“Theater of the Absurd” is an album that opens with the composition of the same name. However, its text is devoid of comedy. Quite the opposite - the song has dramatic notes, saying that the whole world is a theater of the absurd, and the person in it is the main character.
The album also includes compositions with such interesting titles as "A Doll with a Human Face", "Urim Thummim", "Wild Singer" (a reference to Ionesco's play "The Bald Singer" is read), "And the makeup will wash off." In general, the next creation of the "Picnic" group can be compared to a small theatrical performance with an original selection of images and themes.
In humor
One of the main features of the "illogical" genre is humor. This applies not only to the absurd heap of words, phrases of their play, but also the images themselves, which may appear at an unexpected time in an unexpected place. It was this tendency that was more than used in the Theater of the Absurd issue by the comedy duet Demis Karibidis and Andrey Skorokhod, famous residents of the show.Comedy club ... It was based on the work of F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", which was originally reinterpreted by the artists. The characters, the old money-lender (Demis Karibidis) and the student Rodion Raskolnikov (Andrey Skorokhod), in addition to the plot points, also touched upon modern economic, cultural and political realities.
Watching the performances of some playwrights, for example, Eugene Ionesco, one can come face to face with such a phenomenon in the art world as the theater of the absurd. To understand what contributed to the emergence of this trend, you need to turn to the history of the 50s of the last century.
What is theater of the absurd (drama of the absurd)
In the 50s, performances first appeared, the plot of which seemed absolutely meaningless to the audience. Home plays consisted in the alienation of a person from the social and physical environment. In addition, while acting on the stage, the actors managed to combine incompatible concepts.
New plays destroyed all the laws of drama and did not recognize any authorities. Thus, all cultural traditions were challenged. This new theatrical phenomenon, which to some extent denied the existing political and social order, was the theater of the absurd. was first used by theater critic Martin Esslin only in 1962. But some playwrights did not agree with this term. For example, Eugene Ionesco suggested calling the new phenomenon "the theater of ridicule."
History and sources
Several French and one Irish author stood at the origins of the new direction. Eugene Ionesco was able to win the greatest popularity among the audience, and Arthur Adamov also made his contribution to the development of the genre.
The idea of \u200b\u200bthe theater of the absurd first came to the mind of E. Ionesco. The playwright tried to learn English using a self-study textbook. It was then that he drew attention to the fact that many dialogues and remarks in the textbook are completely incoherent. He saw that in ordinary words there is a lot of absurdity, which often turns even smart ones into completely meaningless ones.
However, it would be not entirely honest to say that only a few French playwrights were involved in the emergence of a new direction. After all, existentialists spoke about the absurdity of human existence. For the first time, this theme was fully developed by A. Camus, and F. Dostoevsky had a significant influence on his work. However, it was E. Ionesco and S. Beckett who designated and brought to the stage the theater of the absurd.
Features of the new theater
As already mentioned, the new direction in the theatrical art rejected classical drama. The general characteristics for him are:
Fantastic elements that coexist with reality in the play;
The emergence of mixed genres: tragicomedy, comic melodrama, tragedy - which began to supplant the "pure";
Use of elements in performances that are characteristic of other types of art (choir, pantomime, musical);
Unlike traditional dynamic action on stage, as it was previously in classical productions, static prevails in the new direction;
One of the main changes that characterizes the theater of the absurd is the speech of the characters in new productions: it seems that they are communicating with themselves, because the partners do not listen and do not respond to each other's remarks, but simply utter their monologues into the void.
Types of absurdity
The fact that the new direction in the theater had several founders at once explains the division of absurdity into types:
1. Nihilistic absurdity. These are the works of the well-known E. Ionescu and Hildesheimer. Their plays are distinguished by the fact that the audience fails to understand the implications of the game throughout the entire performance.
2. The second kind of absurdity reflects the universal chaos and, as one of its main parts, man. In this vein, the works of S. Beckett and A. Adamov were created, who sought to emphasize the lack of harmony in human life.
3. Satirical absurdity. As the name implies, representatives of this trend Dürrenmatt, Grass, Frisch and Havel tried to ridicule the absurdity of their contemporary social order and human aspirations.
Key works of the theater of the absurd
The audience learned what theater of the absurd is after the premiere of The Bald Singer by E. Ionesco and Waiting for Godot by S. Beckett took place in Paris.
A characteristic feature of the bald Singer is that the one that should have been the main character never appears on the stage. There are only two married couples on the stage, whose actions are completely static. Their speech is inconsistent and full of clichés, which further reflects the picture of the absurdity of the world around them. Such incoherent, but absolutely typical lines of the heroes repeat again and again. Language, which by its nature is designed to make communication easy, only hinders it in the play.
In Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, two completely inactive characters are in constant expectation of a certain Godot. Not only does this character never appear throughout the entire action, moreover, no one knows him. It is noteworthy that the name of this unknown hero is associated with english word God, i.e. "God". The heroes remember incoherent fragments from their lives, besides, they are not left with a feeling of fear and uncertainty, because there is simply no way of action that could protect a person.
Thus, the theater of the absurd proves that the meaning of human existence can only be found in understanding that it has no meaning.
Lecture 30. New theater (drama of the absurd)
This is a type of modern drama (the so-called "New Theater", initially ignored by the public), based on the concept of a person's total alienation from the physical and social environment. Plays of this kind first appeared in the early 1950s in France and then spread throughout Western Europe and the USA.
This is the theater of "drama of the absurd", created by S. Beckett, E. Ionesco, A. Adamov, who lived in Paris and wrote in French. It was, on the one hand, an attempt to renew the structure and language of the theater, and on the other, the “New Theater” was a reflection of the horror caused by the atrocities of war and the fear of atomic destruction.
The roots of the theater of the absurd can be found in the theoretical and practical activities of representatives of such aesthetic movements of the early 20th century as Dadaism and Surrealism, as well as in A. Jarri's epic burlesque "King I Kill" (1896), in "Sostsi Tiresias" (1903) by G. Apollinaire, where farce and vaudeville are combined, in F. Wedekind's plays with the irrational aspirations of his heroes. The theater of the absurd also absorbed the elements of clownery, music hall, Chaplin's comedies.
The formation of the drama of the absurd (antidrama) was influenced by surreal theatricality: the use of bizarre costumes and masks, meaningless rhymes, provocative addresses to the audience, etc. The plot of the play, the behavior of the characters are incomprehensible, similar and sometimes designed to shock the audience. Reflecting the absurdity of mutual understanding, communication, dialogue, the play in every possible way emphasizes the lack of meaning in the language, and that, in the form of a kind of game without rules, becomes the main carrier of chaos.
It was a conceptual drama that realized the ideas of absurdist philosophy. Reality, being was presented as chaos. For the absurdists, the dominant quality of being was not concise, but disintegration. The second significant difference from the previous drama is in relation to a person. A person in an absurd world is the personification of passivity and helplessness. He cannot be aware of anything except his own helplessness. He is deprived of freedom of choice. The absurdists developed their own concept of drama - anti-drama. Back in the 30s, Antonei Artaud spoke about his perspective of the theater: the rejection of the image of the character of a person, the theater goes over to the total image of a person. All the heroes of the drama of the absurd are total people. Events also need to be considered from the point of view of the fact that they are the result of certain situations created by the author, within which a picture of the world opens. The drama of the absurd is not a discussion of the absurd, but a demonstration of absurdity.
UNESCO UNESCO: Eugène Ionesco's talent manifested itself both in his early poems and in critical articles that gave rise to real revolutions and upheavals in Romanian society, but he burns brightest in his theatrical activities.Eugene Ionesco is the founder of absurdism in French drama.The Ionesco Theater is a theater of mockery and parody. Eugene Ionesco put on stage and ridiculed the emptiness and its absurdity of the world. It opposes traditional theatrical vocabulary. Many did not understand this vocabulary, considering it devoid of any meaning, calling his plays "nonsense". But he defended his right and the title of a famous playwright of our century, which is proved by the numerous awards he received. In most of Ionesco's plays, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe uselessness of language as a means of communication is promoted.
“Reality should be enriched with absurdity, fantasy and free self-expression of the individual,” the author himself believes. And I think everyone will agree with that.
The situations, characters and dialogues of his plays follow images and associations of dreams rather than everyday reality. The language, with the help of funny paradoxes, cliches, sayings and other word games, is freed from the usual meanings and associations.
The surrealism of Ionesco's plays traces its origins to circus clownery, films by C. Chaplin, B. Keaton, the Marx brothers, ancient and medieval farce. A typical technique is a pile of objects that threaten to swallow the actors; things take on life, and people turn into inanimate objects.
In the absurdist plays, catharsis is absent, E. Ionesco rejects any ideology, but the plays were brought to life by deep concern for the fate of the language and its speakers.
The most famous plays by Eugene Ionesco are "The Bald Singer" and "The Lesson". These plays denounce the conservatism, morality and ideology of our world. From the first time, it really may seem that you are reading nonsense, but rereading or pondering, you will notice that it is not so absurd in the book, but absurd in reality. Comic passages, "absence" of meaning are juxtaposed with languid reflections on human existence, which is marked by loneliness and death. The play "The King is Dying" tells about these reflections.
For all the conventionality of the theater of the absurd, it is thoroughly politicized, which is especially convincingly proved by the most significant creation of Eugene Ionesco "Rhino" (1959).Ionesco also shows the mechanisms that contribute to the establishment of certain ideologies. Thus, in the play "Rhino", the inhabitants of a small town are metaphorically presented on the stage, worried about the appearance of a rhino and are gradually turning into it. This play denounces totalitarianism.
Eugene Ionesco, like the existentialists J.P. Sartre and A. Camus, explores human behavior in extreme situationwhen the absolute majority of people submit to circumstances and only a loner finds the strength for internal confrontation.
A feature of the plays by E. Ionesco is that they are, as it were, encrypted. Sometimes they are difficult to solve, but with "Rhino" everything is clear: the drama is about fascism.
Eugene Ionesco's dramaturgy has taken a prominent place in the literary process and in the repertoire of French and world theater. However, this does not at all mean that absurdism won out and the traditional realistic drama left the stage. An ordinary and helpless person in everyday life goes one against everyone.
Literary fame in the early 1950s brought Ionesco the play "The Bald Singer", the history of writing which largely reveals the essence of his writing method. Having decided to master the English language in 1948, the writer bought a self-instruction manual and suddenly discovered what a storehouse of absurdity our everyday speech is, especially in relation to reality. And I thought about the original and gradually lost meaning of words. From the juxtaposition of words and meanings, Ionesco's “unpleasant” theater was born, which was later called absurdist.However, Ionesco's absurdity is not a deliberate absurdization of being (Ionesco himself, by the way, preferred to call the artistic direction to which he belonged, a theater of paradox), but the ultimate exposure of its true essence.
The premiere of "The Bald Singer" took place in Paris. The success of The Bald Singer was scandalous, no one understood anything, but watching absurdist plays gradually became a good form.
“Bald girl”. In the drama itself, there is no one who looks like a bald girl. The very phrase makes sense, but in principle it is meaningless. The play is full of absurdity: 9 o'clock, and the clock strikes 17 times, but no one in the play notices this. Every time you try to fold something, it ends in nothing.
In the anti-play (this is the genre designation), there is no bald singer at all. But there is an English couple of Smiths and their neighbor by the name of Martin, as well as a maid Mary and a fire brigade captain who accidentally dropped in for a minute to the Smiths. He is afraid to be late for the fire, which will start at such and such hours and some minutes. There is still a clock that strikes as it pleases, which apparently means that time is not lost, it simply does not exist, each is in its own time dimension and carries, accordingly, nonsense.
The playwright has several techniques for whipping up the absurd. There is confusion in the sequence of events, and a heap of the same names and surnames, and the spouses' lack of recognition of each other, and the castling of hosts-guests, guests-hosts, countless repetitions of the same epithet, a stream of oxymorons, a clearly simplified construction of phrases like in the tutorial in English for beginners. In short, the dialogues are really funny.
Samuel BECKET: Beckett was Joyce's secretary and learned to write with him. “Waiting for Godot” is one of the basic texts of absurdism. Beckett's play "Waiting for the Year", staged in 1952, is the most famous play in the theater of the absurd, representing a life devoid of meaning. The fundamental difference between B.'s play from previous dramas that broke with the traditions of psychological theater is that no one previously set out to stage "nothing". B. allows you to develop in the play word by word, despite the fact that the conversation starts out of nowhere, and does not come to anything, as if the characters initially know that it will not work out to agree on anything, that wordplay is the only way of communication and convergence. Dialogue becomes an end in itself. But the play also has a certain dynamic. Everything repeats itself, changing just enough to warm up the audience's expectation of some changes.
Entropy (the release of energy in a reaction, a chemical term) is presented in a state of expectation, and this expectation is a process, the beginning and end of which we do not know, i.e. it makes no sense. The state of expectation is the dominant in which the heroes exist, while not thinking about whether or not to wait for Godot. They are in a passive state.
The play Waiting for Godot is one of those works that influenced the overall look of the 20th century theater. Beckett basically refuses any dramatic conflict, the plotline familiar to the viewer. The characters of the play - Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo) - look like two clowns, having nothing to do, entertaining each other and at the same time the audience. They do not act, but imitate some action. It is not aimed at revealing the psychology of the characters. The action does not develop linearly, but moves in a circle, clinging to the refrains that one accidentally dropped replica generates. Not only remarks are repeated, but also positions. At the beginning of Act 2, the tree, the only attribute of the landscape, is covered with leaves, but the essence of this event eludes the characters and spectators. This is not a sign of spring, the progressive movement of time. Rather emphasizes the falsehood of expectations.
The heroes (Volodya and Tarragon) are not completely sure that they are waiting for Godot in the very place where they need it. When the next day after night they come to the same place to the withered tree, Tarragon doubts that it is the same place. The set of objects is the same, only the tree blossomed overnight. Tarragon's boots, which he left on the road yesterday, are in the same place, but he claims that they are larger and of a different color.
The play is seen as the quintessence of Beckett: behind the longing and horror of human existence in its most unsightly form, an inevitable irony appears. The characters in the play are reminiscent of the Maris brothers, the great comedians of silent films.
Waiting for Godot. Summary
Country road, endless fields, almost a desert, whose monotony is broken only by one tree. There are almost no leaves on the tree. There are two tramps at its foot.
Tarragon, unsuccessfully trying to take off his shoes and his friend and brother Vladimir. He is worried about the question of which of the four evangelists told the truth about the two crucified robbers. A series of banal phrases devoid of any meaning, which are exchanged only in order to revive the silence of this dull place. The only thing that keeps them here is the promise of a certain Godou to come. What is left for them to do in anticipation, if not to kill time, endless time that needs to be filled with empty arguments, and at the same time pretend that they take them to heart ... They themselves do not know why they are together, they are used to parting and dating every day in the same place. The noise is somewhere in the other direction, a terrible cry ... Isn't Godou coming? Tarragon drops the carrot, which he chewed before, freezes, rushes towards ...
Pozzo and Luke appear. The latter has a rope around his neck; he carries his master's suitcases. Pozzo, whip in hand, treats his slave in the same way that animals are not treated. And if Vladimir and Estragon are here, why not stop and smoke a pipe? It will kill time, and Pozzo loves to talk. He explains that he is going to sell Luke, who is no longer good for anything. He can only think. In addition, it carries with it if you push it. Finally, it is enough to take off his hat for him to become an animal again, a simpleton. They stay for quite a long time, then go off with a bang.
What to do? Leave? No, Godou promised to come, you need to wait for him. Resigned to fate, Vladimir and Estragon are trying to discuss the insignificant events that marked the day, but they do not have the strength, they are tired to successfully play a comedy of imaginary interest.
A voice is heard from behind the curtains: "Mister (...)". A child comes and says that Godot will not come, as in previous evenings, but he will definitely be tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, all the same meaningless dialogues, without meaning, a repetition of yesterday's conversation, and maybe the day before yesterday and daily. Luke and Pozzo reappear, they have aged; Pozzo is blind, and Luke is even more worthless, he is dumb. But the rope is still there, a little shorter so that Pozzo can follow his slave, who is now wearing a new hat.
At the sight of Vladimir and Estragon, Luke makes a sharp dash and falls, dragging Pozzo with him. Pozzo is calling for help, that's who is really funny! Besides, it wastes time. Two vagabonds pounce on Pozzo, kick him, pick him up - after all, you need to have fun, talk ... As for Godot, he again sends an apology, he will come tomorrow; maybe the way out is to hang on a tree on the belt of Tarragon? But the belt breaks ...
So what! They'll be back tomorrow with a good rope, and if Godou suddenly comes, they'll be saved ...
STOPPARD: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” - appears here characteristic English literature: the British were well aware of their history, every writer feels like a part of this tradition. This play has 2 readings: 1) either the action takes place after the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; 2) either it all seems to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. But the play is based on Shakespeare's thought. There is nothing in the replicas of the heroes that would allow us to distinguish one from the other. Stoppard uses this characteristic. At the center of the play is the question "which of us is Rosencrantz, and who is Guildenstern?" These are 2 human beings who have names that distinguish one from the other. For them, to understand who is who means an opportunity to stand out, to find their “I”. But according to the theory of absurdism, this is impossible, therefore the absurdists do not give names to their heroes. Man is not given to separate his “I” from chaos.
The foregoing, in our opinion, gives grounds to assert that it is inappropriate to speak of any crisis, at least in relation to the theater of the 20th century. True, one cannot discount one phenomenon of the 20th century, which can be considered a manifestation of the crisis, but not of culture. The growth of well-being due to the scientific and technological revolution of the overwhelming majority of the population of Europe, the establishment of democratic tendencies in life led to the actual power in this life of the uncreative majority, unable to live with the ideas and ideals of true culture, unable to rise above the world of everyday life, and this anti-elitism of the majority of the population did not creativity-oriented, culturally destructive.
A manifestation of this trend, starting from the 60s of the XX century. throughout Europe, including France, is the development of show business. Mass circulation of records, cassettes of "disco", "folk", "rock" music, from morning to evening, rattling in the headphones of transistors, everywhere accompany boys and girls1.
However, along with the spread of show business and other negative phenomena in the spiritual life of Europe in the XX century. the culture that uplifts a person continues to exist and develop, which is the criterion of its authenticity, regardless of the genre.
Search for new theatrical forms
Theatrical life in France, as well as in Europe as a whole, has become more diverse in the last two decades. In Paris alone, there are currently over 50 theaters, in which the viewer can find performances for every taste: from the eternal creations of the classics - Shakespeare, Corneille, Racine, Chekhov - in the Comedie Française and Odeon to modern playwrights Beckett and Ionesco in the avant-garde theaters and witty comedies in the "theaters of the boulevards". Every year in Avignon, Orange, Nimes and other cities of France in ancient Roman arenas or in medieval castles theater festivalsattracting thousands of viewers from many countries.
Similar spectacular events are practiced in Italy: on the ruins of the Forum, the Colosseum, the Thermal Baths of Caracalla, amazing performances are held, staging of classical Italian operas on ancient subjects. Thus, the staging of Verdi's opera "Aida" in the Baths of Caracalla creates an exciting feeling of the viewer's presence in the thick of the events.
All this is a search for new theatrical forms accessible to the mass of spectators. An example of such a combination of mass and classics are the grandiose performances of R. Ossein at the arena of the Paris Palace of Sports of the performances “Cathedral Notre dame de paris”,“ Danton and Robespierre ”,“ The Man from Nazareth ”,“ Battleship Potemkin ”.
Claude Carrer, in collaboration with the famous English director Peter Brook, staged the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata at the Bouff du Nord theater in Paris. The scale of this performance is evidenced by the fact that it ran either for three evenings, or for twelve hours in a row from 12 noon to 12 noon. Spectators, who came from many European countries, stocked up thermos with coffee and sandwiches and “heroically hatched to the end,” as the Parisian newspapers wrote in 1986, when this performance was staged.
1 Doctors note an increase in the disorder due to this reason of the hearing aid in young people.