Existentialism & Theatre of the Absurd

1. Existentialism & Theatre of the Absurd

2. Theatre of the Absurd • 1940s-60s, primarily French—a reaction to the World Wars • Most famous play—No Exit, Jean Paul Sartre • Rejects the conventions of realism in every way—why? • Reality is hardly understandable, is chaotic, is disorderly. Existence seemed meaningless, purposeless. We are defenseless against that chaos.

3. Setting/Staging • Stage is usually bare—an “anywhere” setting • Few or no props / costumes • Makes no attempt to be real • Inappropriate, discordant lighting

4. Characters • Age, race, etc are often out of the norm • An old man might play a kid, etc. • Out of sync with nature, man, and self—he is at odds with the life he is living—this situation keeps him from happiness and robs his life of meaning.

5. Action • Doesn’t follow a particular sequence or pattern. • Sometimes (often) goes nowhere. • Grand speeches (soliloquies) become incoherent ramblings and disconnected dialogue • Non-sequitors—lines don’t answer one another

6. Plot • Rather than a freytag’s pyramid with a climax and such, plot is presented as a “pattern of images” • Rapid shifts in action and tone. • Tried to create a “perplexity of images” which would reflect man’s situation, which is a lack of understanding of the world around him.

7. Themes • Usually something along the lines of modern man can’t find his place in society. • A human being is a helpless waif, alone in the universe which confronts him with ridiculous obstacles. • Lack of effective communication / understanding of others—the inadequacy of language for human communication.

8. Based on the philosophy of Existentialism • a "man of good faith" understands human condition and accepts the responsibility of freedom • consciousness, and thus humans, are essentially free, and any attempt to believe otherwise is a form of self-deception, or "bad faith" • the freedom of human consciousness is experienced by humans as a burden ("Man is condemned to be free") • man is nothing else but what he makes of himself • man wills how to act or how not to act • man is responsible for the consequences of his actions • an important value of existential thinking is that one must be honest with oneself • man creates his own meaning

9. Names associated with existentialism: • Soren Kierkegaard, considered the first great existentialist—theorized that man alone is responsible for giving his own life meaning; wrote philosophy about faith and paradox; is credited with the phrase “leap of faith” • Friedrich Nietzsche (philosopher who famously said “God is Dead”) • Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment) • Kafka (The Metamorphosis) • Sartre (Being and Nothingness, No Exit, Nausea) • Albert Camus (The Stranger)

10. Samuel Beckett1906-1989

11. Irish • Noted for his bleak outlook and experimental approach • Situated between Modernism and Postmodernism • Nobel Prize, 1969

12. Relationship with James Joyce • Close friends • Joyce was a mentor • Beckett had a revelatory moment when he feared he would never be as good as Joyce at writing . . .

13. He was intensely private • When he won the Nobel Prize, his wife called it a “catastrophe” • The Nobel panel awarded it to Beckett"for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation“. • In the speech introducing him,  Karl RagnarGierow, of the Swedish Academy said, “The perception of human degradation - which we have witnessed, perhaps, to a greater extent than any previous generation - is not possible if human values are denied. But the experience becomes all the more painful as the recognition of human dignity deepens. This is the source of inner cleansing, the life force nevertheless, in Beckett's pessimism. It houses a love of mankind that grows in understanding as it plumbs further into the depths of abhorrence, a despair that has to reach the utmost bounds of suffering to discover that compassion has no bounds. From that position, in the realms of annihilation, rises the writing of Samuel Beckett like a miserere from all mankind, its muffled minor key sounding liberation to the oppressed, and comfort to those in need.”

14. Man and Woman Contemplating the Moonca. 1824Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840)

15. Vivian Mercier– famous for describing Waiting for Godot as a play which "has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice."