Russian Literature XLI11 (1998) 469-480

North-Holland

THE A B S U R D IN L J U D M I L A P E T R U ~ E V S K A J A ' S
PLAYS

NINA KOLESNIKOFF

Ljudmila Petru~evskaja began writing plays in the early 1970s, but had to
wait more than ten years to see them staged in professional theatres and
published in respected Soviet periodicals and in book form. By the mid-
1980s Soviet critics recognized the appearance of a new original voice, and
made an effort to assess her unique style. At In'st, critics focused their atten-
tion on Petrulevskaja's use of language, closely resembling colloquial
speech, and saturated with newspaper clich6s, jargon, and professional ter-
minology. In order to capture the uniqueness of Petrulevskaja's language,
critics coined the phrase "a tape recorder effect", stressing the remarkable
closeness between Petrulevskaja's dialogue and the everyday speech of her
contemporaries (Stroeva 1986: 220).
Yet, as correctly pointed out by Maja Turovskaja (1985: 249), Petru-
levskaja's language is not a stenographic recording of ordinary speech, but a
condensed literary phenomenon. Moreover, her language is used not as a
means to express ideas, but as the most important structural element in her
plays. The exchange of words becomes the central action of Petrulevskaja's
plays, and replaces the conventional plot and characters.
The second aspect of Petru~evskaja's plays singled out by Soviet critics
was the extraordinary verisimilitude of characters and situations, which was
labelled as "hyperrealism". Raisa Doktor and Aleksej Plavinskij (1986: 89)
commented on Petru~evskaja's preoccupation with "byt" and her depiction of
ordinary, unattractive characters, and their dull existence in old cottages,
crowded apartments and empty stairways. The critics emphasized the dis-

0304-3479/98/$19.00 © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

470 Nina Kolesnikoff

sonance between the beautiful titles of her plays and the gloomy reality
depicted in them.
The convergence between Petru~evskaja's plays and everyday reality
was also stressed by Nina Agi]eva (1988: 56) who spoke of the impression
of "peeking through a keyhole" in observing life as it goes on. Like Aleksej
Plavinskij, Agileva pointed out the lack of authorial evaluation in Petru-
levskaja's plays, and the necessity for the audience to interpret the events
and characters and to understand their meaning.
While the majority of Soviet critics classified Petru~evskaja as a "hy-
perrealist", some noticed her ability to move beyond the concrete parameters
of everyday reality, and to deal with universal questions of life and death,
and the meaning of life. In her review of Pesni X X veka (Songs of the 20th
Century), Evgenija Kuznecova (1988: 249) observed that Petrulevskaja fre-
quently hides behind the mask of naturalism, depicting human sufferings and
passions in order to highlight some philosophical concerns. As a result, her
so-called "hyperrealistic" plays function as parables, offering material for
philosophical and ethical considerations.
In her revealing observations on Petrulevskaja's dramatic method,
Kuznecova did not mention the tradition of the theatre of the absurd. 1 Yet, it
is exactly this tradition that can best describe certain unique philosophical,
thematic and structural properties in Petru]evskaja's plays. In his pioneering
study, The Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin (1961: xviii-xx) defined the
philosophical roots of the absurd as stemming from the loss of certitudes and
unshakeable assumptions, which led to a sense of futility and the inevitable
devaluation of ideals, purity and purpose. The sense of metaphysical anguish
at the absurdity of the human condition became the main theme of the plays
of the absurd. The form of the theatre of the absurd, according to Esslin, mat-
ches its basic philosophical assumptions. The theatre of the absurd strives to
express the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the
rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discurs-
ive thought. It also tends toward a radical devaluation of language, toward a
poetry that is to emerge from the concrete and objectified images of the stage
itself. The element of language still plays an important, yet subordinate part;
what happens on stage transcends and often contradicts the words spoken by
the characters.
Examined from the point of view of the theatre of the absurd, the plays
of Ljudmila Petrulevskaja display many characteristics of that tradition. The
elements of the absurd.are particularly noticeable in Petrutevskaja's early
one-act plays, such as ~inzano ( Cinzano), Den' ro~denija Smirnovoj (Smir-
nova's Birthday), Lestni~naja kletka (The Stairwell), Pesni X X veka (Songs
of the 20th Century), and in the four short plays, entitled Ternnaja komnata
(The Dark Room) and included in a collection of her plays, Pesni X X veka. 2
In Temnaja komnata the absurd becomes the predominant structural element,
 The Absurd in Petrugevskaja's Plays 471

determining the subject matter, character portrayal and the overall

composition of the plays.
The elements of the theatre of the absurd in Petmtevskaja's early plays
manifest themselves in several ways. First of all, the plays depict reality
which by itself is absurd, illogical and senseless. Some of the absurdities
portrayed by Petmtevskaja reflect the absurdities of Soviet life with such
clear manifestations as the necessity to maintain double standards, shortage
of living space, the scarcity of goods, and the fascination with foreign
clothes.
But the most prominent elements of absurdity are linked with the uni-
versal problems of the unbridgeable gap between aspiration and fulfilment,
the impossibility of communication, and the futility of human relations. The
last of these problems is undoubtedly the underlying theme of all Petru-
levskaja's plays. In the early plays, discussed in this paper, the futility of
human relations is revealed primarily in the break-up of family life. In
~inzano and Den' ro;~denija Smirnovoj all characters, except for Smirnova,
have failed in their marriages, even though they continue to live together for
the sake of convenience or appearance. Like the single and childless Smirno-
va, the heroine of Lestni~naja kletka is a spinster, looking in vain for a suit-
able mate. The futility of her search is underscored by one of the prospective
candidates who philosophically comments on the break-up of the family:
"sem'ja v nastoja~ee vremja ne sut~estvuet. Sut~estvuet ~enskoe plemja s
detenytami i samcy-odino~ki" (Pesni X X veka: 156). The impossibility of
human relations is depicted most vividly in Pesni X X veka, a play that por-
trays the young protagonist Aleksandr T. in total solitude, only dreaming
about a meaningful relationship with his peers, and with a girl whom he met
briefly at a dance.
The second major element of the absurd conveyed by Petmtevskaja's
early plays is the impossibility of communication. Petrutevskaja's dialogue
captures the increasing lack of communication, due to the inability to listen,
the difference in the speed of thinking, or false anticipation. In Cinzano there
is a revealing example of the lack of communication between Pala and
Kostja, each of whom talks about a different thing, while not listening to the
other:

H A U I A . 0 LIeM-TO MM C T0601~I x o p o m o TaK r o B o p H n ~ .

KOCT~I. JIa, a nOTOMnC scnoMtHmb. 0 qeM-WOpo~oM, a 0
HOM? I'IOMHHII.Ib,JIeTOM Mbl 0 TO6Oi~ y HaC n a ~<yxne T p O e CyTOK
n ~ n H - Balls c TeUlC~ 6blnH H a ~laqc, 6narocnosenHoc Bpc~s
rosa. r o s o p H n H , r o s o p a n H , a o ~ e M ? H O T O M scnoMHnan H ne
BCIIOMHHJI.
HAIIIA. ~I ona3~bmaIo.
472 Nina Kolesnikoff

KOCT~I. Xopomo r a t 6bi~o. HaM Bcero-TO ny>rno: cy66oTa,

BOCrpecem,e ha tlacrs II.~ITHH~bIH qacr~ none~tem,nnra. A ~ re-
nep~, cy66oTy n socrpecenbe cn~y Ha ~naTe. Xoa<y c ~eT~,~na
ryJLqT~.
IIAIIIA. ,q ona3~bmaIo Ha asvo6yc. IIOTOM He ;ao6pavbcs. A
M H C rlaj10...
KOCT,q. Bcero s 3roll I<yxHe H a M na~t0 61,UIO: Ha nony ~sa
c T a p m x naJlbTO ha CTOJ-I C 6yTMnXOII. H HHKTO 6 o n B m e
He
Hy~CH.
IIAIIIA. MHe HalO exaTb. (BcTaeT.)
(1988a: 23)

Throughout the play the three characters continue to misread each other; the
verbose Kostja and the self-centred Valja fail to notice PaPa's agitation, and
Pala refuses to disclose the roots of his anxiety. When he finally reveals the
death of his mother, his friends are too drunk to respond. The disclosure of
the death of PaPa's mother constitutes the most dramatic moment of the play.
It also reveals the shocking truth about PaPa's downfall: as a result of his
drinking he failed to donate his bone marrow for his sick mother, he failed to
visit her in the hospital, and he will likely miss her funeral.
In the majority of Petru~evskaja's one-act plays the futility of com-
munication is transmitted through dialogue, but in Pesni X X veka that idea is
conveyed in the form of a monologue. Monologue is by itself a sign of in-
ability to communicate, but in this play the total lack of communication is
underlined by the fact that the protagonist is delivering his monologue not to
another person, but to a tape recorder. The replacement of a human partici-
pant by an inanimate object underscores the total breakdown of human rela-
tions and the alienation of the protagonist.
The third element of the absurd portrayed by Petru~evskaja's early
plays is the incredible gap between aspiration and fulfilment. The female
heroines' dreams about romantic love and happy family lives turn into night-
mares of living with alcoholics. For the male protagonists, aspirations for
successful careers give way to the gloomy reality of constant drinking. As
one of the characters of Cinzano reveals, drinking is for them not a way to
shy away from reality, or to drown their sorrows, but an end in itself.
While excessive drinking is the means to escape reality for the prota-
gonists of ~inzano, Den' ro~denija Smirnovoj, and Lestni~naja kletka, for
the protagonist of Pesni X X veka the only alternative to deal with his gloomy
existence is escape into the world of imagination. Having bought himself a
tape recorder, Aleksandr T. imagines himself in turns a sports commentator,
a journalist, and a famous TV personality. The play offers a startling depic-
tion of the gap between Aleksandr's high aspirations and the grubby details
of his everyday existence. In contrast to the imagined luxury of his future
apartment "with chandeliers, a carpet, another carpet with flowers, and
 The Absurd in Petrugevskaja's Plays 473

shelves", his rented room is actually a verandah with drab furniture and a
leaking roof.
In contrast to his projected popularity in the future, Aleksandr is ex-
tremely lonely in the present. Throughout the play, he admits his unbearable
loneliness and suffering:

O, Kar rpyCTHOcei~qac n KaK XOtleTCHIIY[aKaTb,He pl, iXaltTe BhI

Tar Halo MHOIt,:~ypaBnn. O, KaK Ta>KenoHa cep~J-te!

HOT, TaK )KHTb HOB03MO3KHO. TaK 3KHTb HeJIb3g! ~ 6 o n b ~ e He

Mort 3anncbmaTb! CTOn! (186-188)

With these scattered remarks, the play underscores the true extent of the
protagonist's alienation and his anguish over his situation.
The elements of the theatre of the absurd are also discernable on the
structural level, with the open abandonment of linear plot, lack of character
development, and devaluation of language. Almost all Petrugevskaja's one-
~ nt plays have static plots, which in place of events offer a static situation. In
zano and Den' ro~denija Smirnovoj the plots revolve around drinking
parties. In Ljubov' (Love) and Lestni~naja kletka the plot is restricted to the
exchange of dialogue, intended to clarify the relationship between characters.
As observed by Melissa Smith (1985: 121), in all these plays the
inciting incident of the dramatic action is withdrawn to the periphery of the
action on stage and climax comes in the form of anticlimax. Lacking ex-
positions, clearly defined conflicts, and final resolutions, these plays force
the spectator to contemplate the process of delay and inaction, and to develop
a strategy for interpreting the meaning of the situation.
An additional difficulty in interpreting meaning is caused by the scarce
information about the background and motivation of each character. The
characters are not portrayed in the circumstances of their social positions, or
in their historical context, but rather in their limited personal relations. Fre-
quently, these relations are not the most crucial ones (family, close friends),
but accidental ones. Thus, in Den' ro~denija Smirnovoj, in place of a tradi-
tional birthday party there is an accidental gathering of three women, two of
whom do not even know each other. In Lestni~naja kletka the blind date
arranged by the matchmaker brings together three total strangers. And in
Ljubov' the newly married protagonists are post-factum learning about them-
selves and their reasons for getting married.
On the level of language, Petru~evskaja's early plays do not entirely
abandon rational language, but rather capture the absurdity of ordinary
speech, with its repetitiveness, incoherence, and the lack of logic or gram-
mar. Melissa Smith (1985: 122) commented on gaps of logic and non-se-
474 Nina Kolesnikoff

quiturs in ~inzano. One of the best examples of alogisms occurs in the ex-
change between Valja and PaPa on Pa]a's living arrangements:

BAII~I. TbI qTO, aaecb He :~rnBe1I/b?

IIAIIIA. BpeMeHHO.
BAJLq. BpeMeHHO~naemb H.rmapeMerirtoHeT?
KOCT,q. C e r o ~ a~ecb, n ace.
BAJI~I. A Boo6ule r~e?
IIAIIIA. Ce~,~ac ettle nnr~Ie nora y;~e on~rb.
(1988a: 23)

The illogical juxtaposition of contradictory prepositions and adverbs does not

reflect the incoherent babbling of a drunk, but captures the real problem of a
character, caught between bureaucratic red tape and his own neglect to
register in his mother's apartment.
An abundance of colloquial phraseology and grammar distinguishes the
language of Lestni~naja kletka which contains examples of incorrect declen-
sion, the misuse of foreign words, and colloquial lexicon and idiom. The
language of Pesni X X veka, on the other hand, captures the wide gap be-
tween official and common language. In his heartbreaking monologue,
Aleksandr T. vacillates between the official language of Soviet slogans and
patriotic songs, and the sentimental rhetoric of popular songs. Relying heavi-
ly on ready-made formulas, he seems unable to express himself in his own
language.
Despite the strong presence of elements of the absurd, Petrulevskaja's
early plays should not be labelled as pure theatre of the absurd. Unlike the
typical drama of the absurd, her plays are still deeply rooted in the realistic
tradition and convey information about objective reality and the problems of
individual characters. And, despite the deliberate omission of their back-
grounds and motivation, the characters are recognizable as objectively valid
people with their own idiosyncrasies and psychological make-ups.
In terms of their structure, Petru~evskaja's early one-act plays dispense
with linear composition, but they present clearly defined situations which are
modified in time and moved towards some partial solutions. Finally, the
plays still rely on discursive logic in constructing pointed dialogues that re-
produce the inflection and idiom of everyday speech.
A more consistent example of Petru~evskaja's use of the tradition of
the absurd is provided by the four short plays included in her book Pesni X X
veka under the title Temnaja komnata. In his introduction to the volume,
Anatolij Smeljanskij (1988: 5) openly acknowledged that some members of
the editorial board had serious reservations about the inclusion of that sec-
tion, but ultimately decided that they should respect the author's choice of
the content and the composition of his/her book:
 The Absurd in Petrugevskaja's Plays 475

ABTOp CaM OTO6pan nBeCBI ~JIg KHHFH H CaM oIIpe~CnHJI CC

KOMHO3HI~HIO. Ha pe~aKI~HOHHOM COBeTe HeKOTOpt, le pa3ReJII~l,
Hpe>K~e B c e r o TOT, KOTOpI~II~I HOHMOHOBaH 'TeMHag KOMI-IaTa',
BbI3Ba.TIH ~HCKyCCHIO. ]IIJIa ~ a > r e pe~b 0 TOM, n e q a T a T b HJIH H¢
ne~/aTaTb n b e c b i , B O m e ~ m n e B 3TOT pa3ReJ]. B KOH~e KOH~OB
61alYIO IIpHHgTO IIpHHI.~HIIHa.rIlaHOe peI~eHHe: TaJIaHTHHBBII~I aBTOp
~OJI)KeH Hpe~CTaTb n e p e ~ TeaTpaYIbHblM qHTaTeJIeM B TOM BH~e,
B KaKOM OH CtlHTaeT JUlg ce6~ HCO6XORHMblM.

The controversy surrounding the publication of Temnaja komnata undoub-

tedly reflects the shocking effect of the drama of the absurd which conveys a
sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition.
Typically for the theatre of the absurd, the four plays introduce extreme
situations of murder and execution, terminal illness, and mental instability.
The gloomy mood of the plays is reinforced by claustrophobic settings, de-
picting the oppressive environment of a prison, a cancer ward, and a small
apartment infused with hostility and psychological cruelty.
With the exception of Kazn', which has a semblance of a linear plot,
with three scenes portraying different stages of preparation and the aftermath
of an execution (but not the execution itself), the other plays explore static
situations. In all three plays there is a great degree of tension anchored in the
situation itself. In Svidanie the tension reflects the disturbed mental state of a
man sentenced to death for the killing of five people. In Izolirovannyj boks
the tension is linked with the recognition of the final stage of terminal illness,
and in Stakan vody it arises from anxiety about old age. None of the plays
depicts catastrophe itself, but catastrophe is a given element, lurking in the
future. There is never any doubt about the death penalty for the protagonist
of Svidanie, nor about the inevitability of death for the two terminally ill
heroines of Izolirovannyj boks. And although there is no final resolution in
Stakan vody, the futures of both women look extremely gloomy, with the
older woman facing a lonely and unhappy old age, and the younger one re-
turning to a psychiatric institution.
In accordance with the tradition of the absurd, three of the plays in-
cluded in Temnaja komnata are concerned not as much with objective reality,
as with psychological reality and the inner world of the characters. With the
exception of Kazn', which deals primarily with the facts of external reality,
the plays focus on the outward projection of states of mind, fears, dreams and
nightmares. In Svidanie the disturbed emotional state of the protagonist is
most clearly expressed in his nightmarish vision of abortion as the killing of
innocent lives. To his mother, the son's torments over aborted children is a
sign of his insanity, and the need for medical attention, rather than
imprisonment. But to society, represented by the prison "log", his thoughts
are perfectly normal, and there is no question about his inability to face trial.
476 Nina Kolesnikoff

The play never resolves the question of the protagonist's sanity, but it
underlines the paradox of abortion as the unpunished killing of innocent
victims.
In analogy to the son's nightmares portrayed in Svidanie, the tragic loss
of her twin children becomes the source of life-long anguish for the heroine
of Stakan vody. The heroine offers several contradictory accounts of the
death of her twins, without ever validating which one actually took place.
The play goes one step further by suggesting the possibility of hallucinations.
In her final advice to the younger woman, the heroine suggests:

TOnbKO He roBopH n p o 6 p a T a 6nn3Het~a. A TO OH Ha MeH~ I<pH-

'~aTh 6y~er - art xh~ sce Bs~ayMa.qa, OIIflTby xe6a ra.qn~ottnna-
OI/~ITB6znanettos r~pnnzeza. Tbx Berth ne rastmottanatta~?
I.l,l,ll, I,
(233)

The story of the younger woman identified only by the letter "A" in many
ways mirrors the tragic life of "M": a broken marriage, inability to have
children, and a history of mental illness. As with the story of the twins, the
play retains a great deal of ambiguity about A's mental health. She could be a
perfectly normal person confined to an asylum by her brother, or a true
schizophrenic, blaming others for her problems. Significantly, the ending of
the play intensifies the ambiguity, putting in question the very existence of
A. Responding to M's advice and her question concerning hallucination, A
states: "Yes, yes, of course." This positive reply can be interpreted as A's
agreement to follow M' s advice, or as confirmation of a hallucination.
The difficulty in distinguishing fantasy and fact is also portrayed in
Izolirovannyj boks in which the younger woman terminally ill with cancer
refuses to accept her imminent death, and prefers to believe she has ten more
years to live. The older woman, reconciled to her diagnosis, continually
escapes the dreadful reality of the hospital by talking to her dead grand-
daughter.
Following the tradition of the absurd, the characters are not portrayed
in their social or historical context, but are confronted with the basic choices
and basic situations of their existence. The universality of characters is
signalled by the lack of names and their identification instead by professional
status (guards, major, doctor, driver in Kazn '), or by family relations (mother
and son in Svidanie). In Izolirovannyj boks and Stakan vody the heroines are
identified by single letters and their age.
In all four plays the characters are grouped into symmetrical pairs, and
placed into antagonistic positions. In Stakan vody and Izolirovannyj boks the
antagonism stems from the mistrust and hostility of two total strangers placed
in an extreme situation. In Kazn' the antagonism is linked with the inability
of the new personnel to perform the routine of the execution. The symmetry
 The Absurd in Petrugevskaja's Plays 477

and antagonism are maintained in all three scenes, but there is a significant
reversal of the roles played by each character. The first guard who was ini-
tially opposed to the execution ends up carrying it out. Moreover, while in
scene one, he had to be convinced of the necessity of executions, in scene
three, he has to convince the driver to take the corpse to the morgue. In scene
two, there is a clear reversal of roles between the doctor and the major, with
the latter proving far more humane than the former.
With the exception of Stakan vody which offers a detailed account of
the heroine's past, there is little information about the background and the
motivation of the characters in the other three plays. The characters reveal
themselves in dialogues that demonstrate a great deal of hostility and mutual
cruelty, as well as genuine compassion. The mixture of cruelty and com-
passion is clearly displayed in Svidanie, in which the mother's devotion to
her son, the murderer, is contrasted with his overwhelming feeling of hosti-
lity towards the world and his mother. Throughout the play the son resorts to
the most cruel language to express his anger. Speaking about the murder he
committed, he refers to his girlfriend's parents as "bastards", and her friends
as "whores and murderers". He addresses his own mother with the most of-
fensive term, "bitch". At the same time, the son, who has killed five people,
speaks with genuine tenderness about his girlfriend and her son.
The reliance on cruel language is also evident in Stakan vody. The he-
roine constantly refers to her common-law husband as "Wolf', and justifies
this nickname in the following way:

BO~IK eCTb BOJIK. 3 H a e T e , HeM OTHHqatoTCSI BOJ'IKH, qTO OHH TyT

)Ke, rlpOCTO Ha MecTe pa3"be~atoT CBoero :h,<e BOJ'IKa, eCylrl OH
paHeHbllt. HJIH 60JTbHOI~, HJ~H cTapbI~, KaK B MOeM c a y q a e . H o
3TO BOaK,OH caHHTapneca H no~e~, ero ~a~e 6eperyT. (224)

M vividly describes her sense of hopelessness and despair in sentences like:

"I've planted a big, wooden cross on my life", or "not to work in my si-
tuation would be equivalent to starving to death". M's anxiety about her old
age is captured in the vulgarly modified expression: "There's nobody now to
chuck a glass of water into my face, in my old age."
As could be expected, the play Kazn' also relies on cruel language,
corresponding to the hard reality of the execution. At the same time, there is
a tendency to replace the harsh and exact words describing an execution with
euphemisms. Thus, in scene one, the first guard, uninitiated in the proce-
dures, consistently avoids the word "to kill", and replaces it with a military
clich6 "to implement an order". But the second guard keeps reminding him
about the actual meaning of the "implementation":
478 Nina Kolesnikoff

2-;1. Cero~m~ BOn y6betub, MflTIO.rill.

1-;1. ~I He y6bm, a npnae~3, B ncnoznenrie.
2-;1. IIpaBe~temb a ncno~rnenne y6n;1crao.
1-;t. 3~paacray;1Te. He no;1;ay a c To6o;1, aOT 3~oape~nna.
qepT.
2-;1. Mayo ~n: on y6n~l no-o~JmMy, TU y6bemb rm-~pyrot~7.
Maao an. Y6betub.
1-;1. Tbl TO:;Key6I,emI,.
2-PL II paccTpe~m.
(213)

In scene two, the doctor reporting on the death o f the prisoner, uses the
medical term "to dispatch" to describe the final moments of agony:

Bpaq. qTO xapaKTepHo, cepjItte 614Jmcb BOCeM-ltaJIttaTb MHHy'I"

~OnO~nTe~bno.
Malaop. q e r o >re ;~¢~aa~n?
Bpa~. IIoi(a 3arpy3riTCU.
Mafiop. ~ o ~ a ~ n c b 5hi, 'tTO BbI~ri~. Mor 5hi ~bX~(nTI,.
Bpa,~. HeT, OH TOqHO3arpya<anca y~ce.
Maflop. qTO BI,I -- 3arpy~<ancz, a a r p y a ( a ~ c a . TepMrlH HalU~I4.
Bpaq. OTO C.rIOBOy Hac B 6oa~,nntte. LIToabl 6OYlbHblXHe 6ec-
IIOKOHTb.
(215)

Whereas Kazn' and Svidanie are written in compact dialogues and de-
pend on the swift exchange of replies, Stakan vody and Izolirovannyj boks
rely to a great extent on monologues. In Stakan vody the heroine's mono-
logue takes up three quarters of the entire play, and only in the final section
does monologue give way to a dialogue, involving both women. The pre-
dominance of monologue clearly signals the inability to communicate and to
establish meaningful relationships. In a similar fashion, Izolirovannyj boks
captures the breakdown of dialogue. What at first looks like a dialogue turns
out to be a series of short monologues in which no truly dialectical exchange
of thoughts occurs. Without listening to each other, both women continue to
talk about their own situations and their own problems.
Significantly, in both plays dialogue is reintroduced at the m o m e n t
when a meaningful communication is established. In Stakan vody it occurs at
the end of the play, following M's realization that the other woman is not a
potential rival, but a helpless victim like herself. Moreover, because o f A's
age and her being one of the twins, M recalls her own children and develops
a motherly attitude toward her. A similar mother-like role is assumed by the
older heroine in the last section o f Izolirovannyj boks. Responding to A ' s
worries about her fourteen-year-old son, B offers her some advice on how to
 The Absurd in Petrugevskaja's Plays 479

arrange for his future. In place of disconnected monologues, the play renders
a meaningful dialogue in which a true exchange of thoughts takes place.
The possibility of establishing dialogue, and the willingness to reach
out to the other person, depicted in Izolirovannyj boks and Stakan vody, re-
present a noticeable departure from the predominantly pessimistic philoso-
phy of the theatre of the absurd. On the whole, however, the four plays of
Temnaja komnata capture a sense of metaphysical anguish over the absurdity
of man's existence. They present a picture of a disintegrating world that has
lost its beliefs and its ethical standards. Typically for the theatre of the
absurd, they portray man stripped of accidental circumstances of social
position or historical context, and confronted with the basic choices and the
basic situations of existence.
While presenting the absurd universe, Temnaja komnata does not aban-
don logical construction or rational language. On the contrary, there is a re-
markable precision of language and construction in linking ideas into an
intellectually viable argument and compelling the spectator/reader to make
sense out of what appears as a senseless and fragmented world. Precision be-
comes a defence against the chaos of living experience.

NOTES

With the exception of Melissa Smith, the American scholars do not link
Petru~evskaja with the tradition of the absurd; cf. Condee (1986), Johnson
(1992), Woll (1993).
Petru~evskaja (1988b). This edition of Petru]evskaja's plays will be used
hereafter. Most of the plays from this volume have been translated into
English, and published as Petru~evskaja (1991).

LITERATURE

Agi~eva, Nina
1988 'Zvuki Mu'. Teatr, 9, 55-64.
Condee, Nancy
1986 'Liudmila Petrushevskaia: How the "Lost People" Live'. News-
letter to the Institute of Current World Affairs NPC-14, 1-12.
480 Nina Kolesnikoff

Doktor, Raisa, Plavinskij, Aleksej

1986 'Chronika odnoj p'esy'. Literaturnoe obozrenie, 12, 88-94.
Esslin, Martin
1961 The Theatre of the Absurd. New York.
Johnson, Maya
1992 'Women and Children First: Domestic Chaos and the Maternal
Bond in the Drama of Liudmila Petrushevskaia'. Canadian Slavo-
nic Papers, 34, 97-112.
Krochmal', Evgenij
1988 '(~ernaja ko~ka v temnoj komnate'. Grani, 158,288-292.
Kuznecova, Evgenija
1988 'Mir geroev Petru~evskoj'. Sovetskaja dramaturgija, 5, 249-250.
Petru~evskaja, Ljudmila
1979 Ljubov'. Teatr, 3.
1983a P'esy. Moskva.
1983b Tri devugki v golubom. Sovremennaja dramaturgija, 3.
1984 Four by Liudmila Petrushevskaya (Tr. by Alma Law). New York.
1988a ~inzano. Teatral' naja lizn ', 6.
1988b Pesni X X veka. Moskva.
1991 Cinzano: Eleven Plays (Tr. by Stephen Mulrine). London.
S~oeva, M.
1986 'Mera otkrovennosti. Opyt dramaturgii Ljudmily Petru~evskoj'.
Sovremennaja dramaturgija, 2, 218-228.
Turovskaja, Maja
1985 'Trudnye p'esy'. Novyj mir, 12, 247-252.
Vainer, Victoria
1989 'An Interview with Liudmila Petrushevskaya'. Theater, 20, 61-64.
Woll, Josephine
1993 'Minotaur in the Maze: Remarks on Lyudmila Petrushevskaya'.
World Literature Today, 37, 125-130.