Theater of the absurd

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The theater of the absurd is a branch of the theater of the 20th century that aims to represent the freedom of meaning in the world and the disoriented people in it.

Basics of the absurd theater

The concept of the theater of the absurd (fr. Théâtre de l'Absurde ) was formed in the 1950s as a collective term for a type of drama with grotesque, comical and unreal scenes that predominantly appeared in France ; At least since the monograph of the same name by Martin Esslin (New York, 1961), the term “absurd theater” has been established. According to Seipel (1961), early experimental pieces can be distinguished from later works.

Early experimental dramas

The first drama with absurd features and a deliberate departure from classical theater is "Ubu Roi" ("King Ubu") by Alfred Jarry , which caused a scandal as early as 1896. Jarry as well as other authors later ( Artaud , Guillaume Apollinaire , Jean Cocteau , Gheorghe Ciprian ) play with linguistic platitudes and bring them to the stage in concrete terms. Her plays have anti-bourgeois and propagandistic intentions and in part resemble fables. Overall, the impression remains with these works that their otherness goes beyond little more than a playful experiment. This may be the reason why, with the exception of “King Ubu”, the dramas from the early experimental phase are now hardly to be found in the repertoire.

Late experimental, absurd theater

Authors such as Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett , whose works are typically associated with the “theater of the absurd” or even with the term “antitheater”, are more consistent and radical in rejecting classical theater structures . Beckett's dramas, especially his most famous work En attendant Godot ( Waiting for Godot ), are now part of world literature.

In the pieces of the "absurd dramatists" the units of time, action and place required by classical theater are dissolved. They are replaced by illogical scenarios, absurd actions and seemingly randomly linked series of dialogues, so that ultimately one can no longer speak of classical theater in the Aristotelian sense, which goes back to the rules of poetics .

The plays by the playwrights Arthur Adamov , Samuel Beckett , Eugène Ionesco , Jean Genet , Michel de Ghelderode and Georges Schehadé can be described as a modern form of theater of myths and viewed in connection with the issues and issues of psychoanalysis (Blüher, 1982). Doubts about the conventional rationalistic systems of culture and thought are regarded as the trigger for the emergence of this new form of expression and thus as a continuation of the aspirations of surrealism (Seipel, 1961/1982). This aspect becomes particularly clear in the work of Ionesco, who himself describes his pieces as the dramaturgical creation of the obsessional opposites of his own unconscious.

It is disputed whether the theater of the absurd is about "absurd representations" or the "representation of the absurd", i. H. the absurdity of the world. According to Wolfgang Hildesheimer, many viewers sympathize with the former assumption. Since they refused to regard themselves and their lives as absurd, they rejected, according to Hildesheimer, the theater of the absurd. Performances of Beckett plays in particular are known for the fact that a large part of the audience leaves the theater during the break.

Most theorists sympathize with the second assumption, according to which the theater of the absurd can be understood as an expression of a worldview of the absurd. There are points of contact here with existentialist philosophy, which became popular in France in the 1930s and 1940s through the work of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) and the absurd existentialist philosophy of Albert Camus (1913–1960). Both currents use different means to address the consequences of recognizing the absurdity of life. They must be viewed in the context of the crisis situation in Europe after the Second World War .

Fears and obsessions are expressed in the works of the avant-garde in the form of a semiotic theater. Influenced by the demands of Antonin Artaud ( Le Théâtre et son double, 1938), the playwrights endeavor to assign gestures, décor and stage elements to a role that is equal to dialogue. Language is exposed as a formulaic, meaningless means of communication.

The mixing of tragic and comic elements is also characteristic of the New Theater. Beckett gives En attendant Godot the subtitle Une tragi-comédie and thereby alludes to the separability of classical genres, which has been discussed since the 17th century. Absurd actions and dialogues in his pieces often culminate in comedy situations, which - embedded in the tragic situation of the characters - reinforce the tragic effect of the pieces. There are references to the silent films by Charlie Chaplin , the Commedia dell'arte and the Music Hall .

Well-known pieces

Authors of the absurd theater

Early experimental theater

Pioneers

successor

German-speaking "relatives"

literature

  • Karl Alfred Blüher (ed.): Modern French theater. Adamov - Beckett - Ionesco. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1982, ISBN 3-534-07599-4
  • Martin Esslin: The theater of the absurd. From Beckett to Pinter. 79. – 81. Thousand. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3-499-55414-3 (German translation of the original edition, New York 1964)
  • Hildegard Seipel: Investigations into the experimental theater by Beckett and Ionesco. Dissertation, University of Bonn 1963 (and, as an extract, reality and surreality in the dramas Ionesco , Darmstadt 1982)
  • Martin Esslin: Drame Absurde , Penguin 1965
  • Emmanuel Jacquart: Le théâtre de dérision , Gallimard 1974
  • Henri Béhar : Le théâtre dada et surréaliste , Gallimard 1979
  • Wolfgang Hildesheimer: About the theater of the absurd. A speech. Suhrkamp 1985, ISBN 3-518-36862-1
  • Jean-Pierre Sarrazac and Gérard Schneilin : Entry Absurdes Theater , pp. 46–49 in: Manfred Brauneck , Gérard Schneilin (eds.): Theaterlexikon. Terms and epochs, stages and ensembles . Reinbek 1992. 1138 pages, ISBN 3-499-55465-8

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Havel. In: Wissen.de. Archived from the original ; accessed on August 11, 2018 .