Theatre of the Absurd

The Theatre of the Absurd is a term coined by American critic Martin Esslin to refer to a specific kind of theatre prevalent in the 1960's and 1970s.

Also referred to by various versions of the term, e.g absurd theatre, absurdist theatre, absurdism, absurdist and so on.

The general concept

In general terms this is the name coined by Esslin to refer to works of theatre heavily influenced by the philosophical nihilism of Sarte, Camus and others, plays in which the focus is on the depiction of man cut off from his roots: religious, cultural, intellectual and existential. He appears lost in a universe that apparently makes no sense. Among the primary formal examples of "absurdist playwrights" are Samuel Beckett (e.g. Waiting for Godot), Eugene Ionesco (e.g. La Cantatrice Chauve - known in English as The Bald Primadonna or The Bald Soprano), Fernando Arrabal (Guernica), Harold Pinter (The Caretaker) and Edward Albee (e.g. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).

Theatre of the Absurd in South Africa

In South African drama the absurdity of the human condition also features strongly in a wide range of plays from the 1960's onward, though not always as abstractly as in the case of the examples mentioned by Esslin and others in their discussions of the absurdist theatre. Interestingly enough it seems it was the Afrikaans writers who were most specifically and directly influenced by Sartre, Camus and the existentialist movement and sought to emulate Beckett and others at the formal level. Notable among them are André P. Brink - (especially in the three short plays contained in the collection called Bagasie ["Baggage"] and in Elders mooiweer en warm), Chris Barnard (Pa, maak vir my 'n vlieër, pa and Die Rebellie van Lafras Verwey), George Louw (**), Bartho Smit (Putsonderwater, Christine, Die Keiser), Dolf van Niekerk (Kamer 99). Some plays by Athol Fugard (e.g. Hello and Goodbye and Boesman and Lena) and P.G. du Plessis's work (notably Nag van Legio and Plaston) display distinct absurdist elements and have strong existential properties amidst a general focus on the detail of realism and a more positive humanist perspective. So too the works of Zakes Mda (Dead End and We Shall Sing for the Fatherland ) and Maishe Maponya (Dirty work and Gangsters) echo of formal absurdism and display an external cynicism, but are all rooted in a clear socio-political commitment. The first work of Charles Fourie also has its roots in a rediscovery of the "absurd" by the students youth of the 1980's, but he rapidly moved on. By the post apartheid period, new writers surfaced, who also seem to tap into an absurdist style and mode - among them ***. (LO)

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_absurd

(See Brink, 1978, Conradie, 1992, Haffter, 1992, Odendaal, 1978.)

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