Pygmalion and

Waiting For Godot

July/Aug 2020
Both Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett have through
their problem plays, stimulated thought on part of the
audience while blending the comic and the serious,
using heightened theatricality.

In relation to the above statement, discuss the ways in

which both the playwrights have, through their
treatment of the comic and the serious, confronted the
audience to reality and disturbing truths.
Introduction:
“life’s a stage and we are all actors”
How pygmalion and waiting for godot fit in the genre of the
problem play?
• Comedy that borders on ibsenian tragedy v/s tragicomedy
• Importance of the theatre/ heightened theatricality/theatre of
situations while conveying the the vain struggle of mankind to
find meaning in life and decide upon one’s fate.
• Satirical comedy, social criticism, commercial theatre v/s
theatre of the absurd, drama of unknowingness