Introduction: Reassessing the Theatre of the Absurd

Abstract

In 1953, a play premiered that confounded audiences, arguably, unlike any play that has come before or after it. That play was Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. One early critic probably summed up the frustrations of the 1950s theatre audience the best, taking a line from the play: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.”1 Audiences who were used to Aristotelian, Shakespearean, melodramatic, and realistic drama, a play with a clear beginning, middle, and end—exposition, action, climax, and a dénouement—had a right to be bewildered by a play like Godot. However, though Godot received the most press, it was not the only play of its kind. A new avant-garde theatre was taking shape. Though none of its practitioners claimed they were part of a movement, playwrights such as Beckett, Harold Pinter, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco, Arthur Adamov, and Edward Albee befuddled audiences in a similar manner. As the 1950s proceeded, these plays started to gain a following, but, for the most part, the general public lagged behind.KeywordsBirthday PartyMarshall PlanRealistic DramaParabolic NaturePersonal ExistenceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.