Origin Of The Theatre Of The Absurd

Theater Of The Absurd seeks to represent the absurdity of human existence in a

meaningless universe by bizarre means.Theatre of the Absurd explored through a
dramatic perspective the central idea that life was naturally meaningless and
humans were fundamentally incapable of controlling their fates in a harsh and
uncaring universe. Theatre of the Absurd had a huge impact on the modern
theatrical landscape, and many of the plays associated with the movement are still
highly regarded and frequently performed today.

World War II was the catalyst that finally brought the Theatre of the Absurd to life. The
global nature of this conflict and the resulting trauma of living under threat of nuclear
annihilation brought cognisance into the essential danger of human life. Soon enough,
one did not need to be an abstract thinker in order to be able to reflect upon absurdity.

Antonin Artaud who was regarded as the “prophet” of the absurd rejected realism in
the theatre, calling for a return to myth and magic and to the exposure of the deepest
conflicts within the human mind. He wanted a theatre that would produce collective
archetypes and create a modern mythology, the Theatre of the Absurd is precisely the
‘New Theatre’ that Artaud was dreaming of. It was the total opposite of the conventional
theatre.

The Theatre of the Absurd is a movement made up of many diverse plays, most of which
were written between 1940 and 1960.This play was usually illogical,conflictless,surreal
and plotless the dialogue complete gibberish,when this was first performed, these plays
left the audiences shocked cause of the new and different approach Lonesco and many
even tagged it “Anti-play”. In the name of clarification popular critic Martin Esslin
coined the term “The Theatre of the Absurd” in his 1960 book which was also called
“The Theatre of the Absurd”. He defined it as such, because all of the plays emphasized
the absurdity of the human condition. Whereas we tend to use the word “absurd”
synonymously with “ridiculous,” Esslin was referring to the original meaning of the
word– ‘out of harmony with reason or propriety; illogical’. Essentially, each play renders
man’s existence as illogical, and moreover, meaningless. This idea was a reaction to the
“collapse of moral, religious, political, and social structures” following the two World
Wars of the Twentieth Century. The term refers to a particular type of play which first
became popular during the 1950s and 1960s and which presented on stage the
philosophy articulated by French philosopher Albert Camus in his 1942 essay, The Myth
of Sisyphus, in which he defines the human condition as basically meaningless. Camus
argued that humanity had to resign itself to recognizing that a fully satisfying rational
explanation of the universe was beyond its reach; in that sense, the world must
ultimately be seen as absurd. In Esslin’s book he mentioned Five defining playwright of
this movement Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, and
Harold Pinter, he added that this playwrights weren’t comfortable with the idea of calling
it “Absurd” they preferred to call it “Anti-play” or “New Theatre”. There were many others
who performed or participated in this type of theatre like,Tom Stoppard,Friedrich
Dürrenmatt, Fernando Arrabal,Edward Albee, Boris Vian,and Jean Tardieu.

The "Absurd" or "New Theater" movement was originally a Paris-based (and a Rive
Gauche) avant-garde phenomenon tied to extremely small theaters in the Quartier Latin.
Some of the Absurdists, such as Jean Genet, Jean Tardieu, and Boris Vian., were born in
France. Many other Absurdists were born elsewhere but lived in France, writing often in
French: Samuel Beckett from Ireland; Eugène Ionesco from Romania; Arthur Adamov from
Russia; Alejandro Jodorowsky from Chile and Fernando Arrabal from Spain. As the
influence of the Absurdists grew, the style spread to other countries—with playwrights either
directly influenced by Absurdists in Paris or playwrights labelled Absurdist by critics. In
England, some of those whom Esslin considered practitioners of the Theatre of the Absurd
include Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, N. F. Simpson, James Saunders,and David Campton;
in the United States, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Jack Gelber, and John Guare;in Poland,
Tadeusz Różewicz; Sławomir Mrożek, and Tadeusz Kantor; in Italy, Dino Buzzati; and in
Germany, Peter Weiss, Wolfgang Hildesheimer, and Günter Grass. In India, both Mohit
Chattopadhyay and Mahesh Elkunchwar have also been labeled Absurdists. Other
international Absurdist playwrights include Tawfiq el-Hakim from Egypt; Hanoch Levin from
Israel; Miguel Mihura from Spain; José de Almada Negreiros from Portugal; Mikhail
Volokhovfrom Russia; Yordan Radichkov from Bulgaria; and playwright and former Czech
President Václav Havel. So it is save to say this all started from Paris.