THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

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THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
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• Alfred Jarry UBU ROI (1896)
• Avant-garde 1920s 1930s
• 'Myth of Sisyphus'
• Martin Esslin works 1950s 1960s
• Conventions

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The Theatre of the Absurd

• was
• A reaction to the disappearance of the religious
  dimension form our life
• An attempt to restore the importance of myth and
  ritual.

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• An attempt to make man aware of the ultimate
  realities of his condition, by instilling in him
  again the lost sense of cosmic wonder and
  anguish.

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• Aspects of the Theatre of the Absurd
• Distrust of language as a means of communication
• Absurd drama uses conventionalized speech,
  clichés, slogans and technical jargon
• http//www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm

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Antonin Artaud

• The Theater and Its Double (1938)
• Rejects realism
• Cherishes a vision of a stage of magical beauty
  and mythical power.

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• Calls for a return to myth and magic and to the
  exposure of the deepest conflicts within the
  human mind
• Demanded a theatre that would produce collective
  archetypes, thus creating a new mythology.

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• Theatre should pursue the aspects of the internal
  world. Man should be considered metaphorically in
  a wordless language of shapes, light, movement
  and gesture.
• Theatre should express what language is incapable
  of putting into words.