"THE RHINOCEROS" BY EUGÈNE IONESCO AND "TANGO" BY SLAVOMYR MROŻEK: SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE SPACE-TIME ORGANIZATION

Abstract

The article analyzes the characteristic features of organizing artistic time and space on the example of the plays "Rhinoceros" by E. Ionesco and "Tango" by S. Mrożek, which are traditionally considered classic examples of European theatre of the absurd. The basis of the nature of the theatre of the absurd is the destruction of the stage illusion, which manifests itself in various formal and content categories, among which the key role belongs to the chronotope.
 Common to the dramas of both authors is the space-time, which can mostly be characterized as conditional, undefined and without specific historical signs. Actors who function in such a chronotope are to a certain extent abstract, devoid of individual features. In the drama "Rhinoceros" time is outlined only cursorily in the remarks, which makes it impossible to determine a specific historical dimension and transports the viewer into a certain kind of conditional timelessness, emphasizing the universality of the idea. The artistic space, subject to the general logic of the plot, thickens with each action, shrinks from the size of the square of a provincial town to a room, and the main character, finding themself in a dead end, realizes their doom and the only possible need to fight for the preservation of their own human nature.
 In the drama "Tango" the mixing of time layers can be traced in an arbitrary way, which is additionally emphasized by a specific construction of space, the main feature of which is chaos. The first and second acts represent the living room of a solid residence of a Polish middle-class family of the early twentieth century, but all the interior elements are in complete disarray, which is a reflection of the anarchic views of the characters, permissiveness and leveling of traditions. In the third act, instead, we see the previous living room, in which order and coziness reign, but this very demonstratively ordered space contrasts sharply with the attempt to make death and violence an integral part of the ideology.