Twentieth Century Theatre& the Theatre of the Absurd

Photos in this lecture come from the film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

What are the essential qualities of theatre?

It is live; it is shared; it is communal Each performance is unique, susceptible to change and

therefore dangerous Unpredictable things could happen – someone forgets a line,

drops something, the lights go out, or something happens in the audience.

It is the co-existence of the there and then and the here and now While in the audience,

we perceive what is happening on the stage as the time period portrayed, yet we sit there in our time watching it all happen.

The aim of theatre theory & practice in the twentieth century

Theatre has explored itself in relation to our in response to film and TV Are these media [film & TV] ‘theatre’? They are the media

through which most of us experience naturalistic, mimetic performance. The response is no – theatre is not finished like a film or TV show.

Even when TV is live, we are at home alone, not part of a group audience. Also, film and TV look more real – there is much more pretend in theatre.

Theatre in twentieth century isno longer a mainstream source of live entertainment and leisure Other live entertainments are more

popular, such as concerts, sports, comics, etc…

Directors and Actors

Directors became important and had a great influence on the course of theatre in the 20th century. They often rewrote parts of scripts and completely

reinterpreted a play into a different time period for example.

Performers also asserted themselves as creative artists, not merely interpretative artists. Performers had a say in their roles and lines

rather than just acting what was on a written page.

Realism vs. Symbolism & Expressionism

Realism popular as it mimics television and movies

However, Playwrights felt they could do more with the field Symbolism and Expressionism

more pronounced in theatre than in TV or film

share the characteristics of dreams

look to the common un-conscious of humankind

Distortion, Fragmentation or blending of characters occurs

Use of silence, repetition, &consciously symbolic lighting effects.

Theatre of the Absurd

A reaction to the disappearance of the religious dimension form contemporary life Authors felt that life is meaningless; there is no hope of

salvation – thus their plays reflected these ideas. An attempt to restore the importance of myth and ritual to our

age, by making man aware of the ultimate realities of his condition Not everything is scientific and can be figured out – so plays

showed illogic of life. Shows that language is unreliable

There are so many clichés in language that it doesn’t convey real human thought Language in plays can be purposefully confusing. As in Hamlet,

language means something and sometimes nothing

Theatre of the Absurd

Settings are very generalized and could be anywhere

Identity is not fixed Often the characters forget who they are!

Merging of the comic and tragic However frantically characters perform

only underlines the fact that cannot do anything to change their existence