THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD THE WEST AND THE EAST I.

The West 'The Theatre of the Absurd' is a term coined by the critic Martin Esslin for the work of a number of playwrights, mostly written in the !"#s and !$#s. The term is deri%ed from an essay by the &rench philosopher Albert 'amus. In his 'Myth of (isyphus', written in !)*, he first defined the human situation as basically meaningless and absurd. The 'absurd' plays by (amuel +eckett, Arthur Adamo%, Eugene Ionesco, ,ean -enet, .arold /inter and others all share the %iew that man is inhabiting a uni%erse with which he is out of key. Its meaning is indecipherable and his place within it is without purpose. .e is bewildered, troubled and obscurely threatened. The origins of the Theatre of the Absurd are rooted in the a%ant0garde e1periments in art of the !*#s and !2#s. At the same time, it was undoubtedly strongly influenced by the traumatic e1perience of the horrors of the (econd World War, which showed the total impermanence of any %alues, shook the %alidity of any con%entions and highlighted the precariousness of human life and its fundamental meaninglessness and arbitrariness. The trauma of li%ing from !)" under threat of nuclear annihilation also seems to ha%e been an important factor in the rise of the new theatre. At the same time, the Theatre of the Absurd also seems to ha%e been a reaction to the disappearance of the religious dimension form contemporary life. The Absurd Theatre can be seen as an attempt to restore the importance of myth and ritual to our age, by making man aware of the ultimate realities of his condition, by instilling in him again the lost sense of cosmic wonder and prime%al anguish. The Absurd Theatre hopes to achie%e this by shocking man out of an e1istence that has become trite, mechanical and complacent. It is felt that there is mystical e1perience in confronting the limits of human condition. As a result, absurd plays assumed a highly unusual, inno%ati%e form, directly aiming to startle the %iewer, shaking him out of this comfortable, con%entional life of e%eryday concerns. In the meaningless and -odless post0(econd0World0War world, it was no longer possible to keep using such traditional art forms and standards that had ceased being con%incing and lost their %alidity. The Theatre of the Absurd openly rebelled against con%entional theatre. Indeed, it was anti0theatre. It was surreal, illogical, conflictless and plotless. The dialogue seemed total gobbledygook. 3ot une1pectedly, the Theatre of the Absurd first met with incomprehension and re4ection.
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5ne of the most important aspects of absurd drama was its distrust of language as a means of communication. 6anguage had become a %ehicle of con%entionalised, stereotyped, meaningless e1changes. Words failed to e1press the essence of human e1perience, not being able to penetrate beyond its surface. The Theatre of the Absurd constituted first and foremost an onslaught on language, showing it as a %ery unreliable and insufficient tool of communication. Absurd drama uses con%entionalised speech, clich7s, slogans and technical 4argon, which is distorts, parodies and breaks down. +y ridiculing con%entionalised and stereotyped speech patterns, the Theatre of the Absurd tries to make people aware of the possibility of going beyond e%eryday speech con%entions and communicating more authentically. 'on%entionalised speech acts as a barrier between oursel%es and what the world is really about8 in order to come into direct contact with natural reality, it is necessary to discredit and discard the false crutches of con%entionalised language. 5b4ects are much more important than language in absurd theatre8 what happens transcends what is being said about it. It is the hidden, implied meaning of words that assume primary importance in absurd theatre, o%er an abo%e what is being actually said. The Theatre of the Absurd stro%e to communicate an undissol%ed totality of perception 0 hence it had to go beyond language. Absurd drama sub%erts logic. It relishes the une1pected and the logically impossible. According to (igmund &reud, there is a feeling of freedom we can en4oy when we are able to abandon the strait4acket of logic. In trying to burst the bounds of logic and language the absurd theatre is trying to shatter the enclosing walls of the human condition itself. 5ur indi%idual identity is defined by language, ha%ing a name is the source of our separateness 0 the loss of logical language brings us towards a unity with li%ing things. In being illogical, the absurd theatre is anti0rationalist8 it negates rationalism because it feels that rationalist thought, like language, only deals with the superficial aspects of things. 3onsense, on the other hand, opens up a glimpse of the infinite. It offers into1icating freedom, brings one into contact with the essence of life and is a source of mar%ellous comedy. There is no dramatic conflict in the absurd plays. 9ramatic conflicts, clashes of personalities and powers belong to a world where a rigid, accepted hierarchy of %alues forms a permanent establishment. (uch conflicts, howe%er, lose their meaning in a situation where the establishment and outward reality ha%e become meaningless. .owe%er frantically characters perform, this only underlines the fact that nothing happens to change their e1istence. Absurd dramas are lyrical statements, %ery much like music8 they communicate an atmosphere, an e1perience of archetypal human situations. The Absurd Theatre is a theatre of situation, as against the more con%entional theatre of se:uential e%ents. It presents a pattern of
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poetic images. In doing this, it uses %isual elements, mo%ement, light. ;nlike con%entional theatre, where language rules supreme, in the Absurd Theatre language is only one of many components of its multidimensional poetic imagery. The Theatre of the Absurd is totally lyrical theatre which uses abstract scenic effects, many of which ha%e been taken o%er and modified from the popular theatre arts8 mime, ballet, acrobatics, con4uring, music0hall clowning. Much of its inspiration comes from silent film and comedy, as well as the tradition of %erbal nonsense in early sound film <6aurel and .ardy, W ' &ields, the Mar1 +rothers=. It emphasises the importance of ob4ects and %isual e1perience8 the role of language is relati%ely secondary. It owes a debt to European pre0war surrealism8 its literary influences include the work of &ran> ?afka. The Theatre of the Absurd is aiming to create a ritual0like, mythological, archetypal, allegorical %ision, closely related to the world of dreams. Some of the predecessors of absurd drama:
@ In the realm of verbal nonsense: &ranAois Babelais, 6ewis 'arroll and

Edward 6ear. Many serious poets occasionally wrote nonsense poetry <,ohnson, 'harles 6amb, ?eats, .ugo, +yron, Thomas .ood=. 5ne of the greatest masters of nonsense poetry was the -erman poet 'hristian Morgernstern < CD 0 ! )=. Ionesco found the work of ( , /erelman <i.e. the dialogues of the Mar1 +rothers' films= a great inspiration for his work.
@ The

orld of alle!or"# m"th and dream8 The tradition of the world as a stage and life as a dream goes back to Eli>abethan times. +aro:ue allegorical drama shows the world in terms of mythological archetypes8 ,ohn Webster, 'yril Tourneur, 'alderon, ,akob +iederman. With the decline of allegory, the element of fantasy pre%ails <(wift, .ugh Walpole=. Cth and !th 'entury works of literature we find sudden transformation of characters and nightmarish shifts of time and place <E T A .offman, 3er%al, Aure%illy=. 9reams are featured in many theatrical pieces, but it had to wait for (trindberg to produce the masterly transcriptions of dreams and obsessions that ha%e become a direct source of the Absurd Theatre. (trindberg, 9ostoye%sky, ,oyce and ?afka created archetypes8 by del%ing into their own subconscious, they disco%ered the uni%ersal, collecti%e significance of their own pri%ate obsessions. In the %iew of Mircea Eliade, myth has ne%er completely disappeared on the le%el of indi%idual e1perience. The Absurd Theatre sought to e1press the indi%idual's longing for a single myth of general %alidity. The abo%e0mentioned authors anticipated this.
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@ In some

Alfred ,arry is an important predecessor of the Absurd Theatre. .is ;+; B5I < C!$= is a mythical figure, set amidst a world of grotes:ue archetypal images. ;bu Boi is a caricature, a terrifying image of the animal nature of man and his cruelty. <;bu Boi makes himself ?ing of /oland and kills and tortures all and sundry. The work is a puppet play and its d7cor of childish nai%ety underlines the horror.= ,arry e1pressed man's psychological states by ob4ectifying them on the stage. (imilarly, &ran> ?afka's short stories and no%els are meticulously e1act descriptions of archetypal nightmares and obsessions in a world of con%ention and routine.
@ $%th &entur" European avant'!arde8 &or the &rench a%ant0garde, myth and

dream was of utmost importance8 the surrealists based much of their artistic theory on the teachings of &reud and his emphasis on the role of the subconscious. The aim of the a%ant0garde was to do away with art as a mere imitation of appearances. Apollinaire demanded that art should be more real than reality and deal with essences rather than appearances. 5ne of the more e1treme manifestations of the a%ant0garde was the 9adaist mo%ement, which took the desire to do away with obsolete artistic con%entions to the e1treme. (ome 9adaist plays were written, but these were mostly nonsense poems in dialogue form, the aim of which was primarily to 'shock the bourgeois audience'. After the &irst World War, -erman E1pressionism attempted to pro4ect inner realities and to ob4ectify thought and feeling. (ome of +recht's plays are close to Absurd 9rama, both in their clowning and their music0hall humour and the preoccupation with the problem of identity of the self and its fluidity. &rench surrealism acknowledged the subconscious mind as a great, positi%e healing force. .owe%er, its contribution to the sphere of drama was meagre8 indeed it can be said that the Absurd Theatre of the !"#s and !$#s was a +elated practical realisation of the principles formulated by the (urrealists as early as the !2#s. In this connection, of particular importance were the theoretical writings of Antonin Artaud. Artaud fully re4ected realism in the theatre, cherishing a %ision of a stage of magical beauty and mythical power. .e called for a return to myth and magic and to the e1posure of the deepest conflicts within the human mind. .e demanded a theatre that would produce collecti%e archetypes, thus creating a new mythology. In his %iew, theatre should pursue the aspects of the internal world. Man should be considered metaphorically in a wordless language of shapes, light, mo%ement and gesture. Theatre should aim at e1pressing what language is incapable of putting into words. Artaud forms a bridge between the inter0war a%ant0garde and the post0(econd0World0War Theatre of the Absurd.
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THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD THE (EST A)D THE EAST II. T.E EA(T At the time when the first absurd plays were being written and staged in Western Europe in the late !)#s and early !"#s, people in the East European countries suddenly found themsel%es thrown into a world where absurdity was a integral part of e%eryday li%ing. (uddenly, you did not need to be an abstract thinker in order to be able to reflect upon absurdity8 the e1perience of absurdity became part and parcel of e%erybody's e1istence. .itler's attempt to con:uer Bussia during the (econd World War ga%e Bussia a uni:ue opportunity to e1tend its sphere of influence and at the same time to 'further the cause of Ethe (o%iet brand ofF socialism'. In the final years of the war, (talin turned the war of the defeat of 3a>ism into the war of con:uest of 'entral Europe and the war of the di%ision of Europe. In pursuing .itler's retreating troops, the Bussian Army managed to enter the territory of the 'entral European countries and to remain there, with %ery few e1ceptions, until now. The might of the Bussian Army made it possible for (talin to establish rigidly ideological pro0(o%iet regimes, hermetically sealed from the rest of Europe. The 'entral European countries, whose pre0war political systems ranged from feudal monarchies <Bumania=, semi0authoritarian states </oland= through to a parliamentary Western0 type democracy <'>echoslo%akia= were now sub4ected to a militant (o%ietisation. The countries were forced to undergo a ma4or traumatic political and economic transformation. The Western Theatre of the Absurd highlighted man's fundamental bewilderment and confusion, stemming from the fact that man has no answers to the basic e1istential :uestions8 why we are ali%e, why we ha%e to die, why there is in4ustice and suffering. East European (o%iet0type socialism proudly proclaimed that it had answers to all these :uestions and, moreo%er, that it was capable of eliminating suffering and setting all in4ustices right. To doubt this was sub%ersi%e. 5fficially, it was sufficient to implement a grossly simplified formula of Mar1ism to all spheres of life and /aradise on Earth would ensue. It became clear %ery soon that this simplified formula offered e%en fewer real answers than %arious esoteric and comple1 Western philosophical systems and that its implementation by force brought enormous suffering. &rom the beginning it was clear that the simplified idea was absurd8 yet it was made to dominate all spheres of life. /eople were e1pected to shape their li%es according to its dictates and to en4oy it. It was, and still is, an offence to be sceptical about (o%iet0type socialism if you are a citi>en of an East0European
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country. The sheer fact that the arbitrary formula of simplified Mar1ism was made to dominate the li%es of millions of people, forcing them to beha%e against their own nature, brought the absurdity of the formula into sharp focus for these millions. Thus the (o%iet0type system managed to bring the e1perience of what was initially a matter of concern for only a small number of sensiti%e indi%iduals in the West to whole nations in the East. This is not to say that the absurdity of life as e1perienced in the East differs in any way from the absurdity of life as it is e1perienced in the West. In both parts of the world it stems from the ambiguity of man's position in the uni%erse, from his fear of death and from his instincti%e yearning for the Absolute. It is 4ust that official East0European practices, based on a contempt for the fundamental e1istential :uestions and on a primiti%e and arrogant faith in the power of a simplified idea, ha%e created a reality which makes absurdity a primary and deeply0felt, intrinsic e1perience for anybody who comes in contact with that reality. To put it another way8 the western Theatre of the Absurd may be seen as the e1pression of frustration and anger of a handful of intellectuals o%er the fact that people seem to lead uninspired, second0rate and stereotyped e1istences, either by deliberate choice or because they do not know any better and ha%e no idea how or ability by which to help themsel%es. Although such anger may sound smug and condescending, it is really mi1ed with despair. And when we look at Eastern Europe, we realise that these intellectuals are 4ustified in condemning li%es of mediocrity, e%en though many people in the West seem to lead such li%es :uite happily and without any awareness of the absurdity. In Eastern Europe, second0 rateness has been ele%ated to a single, sacred, go%erning principle. There, mediocrity rules with a rod of iron. Thus it can be seen clearly what it can achie%e. As a result, unlike in the West, may people in the East seem to ha%e disco%ered that it is %ery uncomfortable to li%e under the command of second0rateness. <The fact that mediocrity is harmful to life comes across so clearly in Eastern Europe either because East0European second0rateness is much harsher than the mild, West0European, consumerist mediocrity, or simply because it is a single, totalitarian second0rateness, obligatory for all. A single %ersion of a simple creed cannot suit all, its insufficiencies immediately show. This is not the case if e%erybody is allowed to choose their own simplified models and pre4udices which suit their indi%idual needs, the way it is in the West 0 thus their insufficiencies are not immediately noticeable.= The rise of the Theatre of the Absurd in the East is connected with the period of relati%e rela1ation of the East European regimes after (talin's death. In the first decade after the communist take0o%er of power, it would ha%e been impossible for
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anyone to write anything e%en distantly based on his e1periences of life after the take0o%er without endangering his personal safety. The arts, as indeed all other spheres of life, were sub4ect to rigid political control and reduced to ser%ing blatant ideological and propagandistic aims. This was the period when feature films were made about happy workers in a steelworks, or about a %illage tractor dri%er who after falling in lo%e with his tractor becomes a member of the communist party, etc. All the arts assumed rigidly conser%ati%e, !th0'entury realist forms, to which a strong political bias was added. *# th 0'entury de%elopments, in particular the inter0 war e1periments with structure and form in painting and poetry were outlawed as bourgeois decadence. In the years after (talin's death in !"2, the situation slowly impro%ed. The year !"$ saw two ma4or attempts at liberalisation within the (o%iet +loc8 the .ungarian re%olution was defeated, while the /olish autumn managed to introduce a measure of normalcy into the country which lasted for se%eral years. '>echoslo%akia did not see the first thaw until towards the end of the !"#s8 genuine liberalisation did not start gaining momentum until !$*0$2. .ence it was only in the !$#s that the first absurdist plays could be written and staged in Eastern Europe. E%en so, the Theatre of the Absurd remained limited to only two East European countries, those that were the most liberal at the time8 /oland and '>echoslo%akia. The East European Absurd Theatre was undoubtedly inspired by Western absurd drama, yet it differed from it considerably in form, meaning and impact. Although East European authors and theatre producers were :uite well ac:uainted with many West0European absurd plays from the mid to late !"#s onwards, ne%ertheless <with %ery few e1ceptions= these plays were not performed or e%en translated in Eastern Europe until the mid0 !$#s. The reasons for this were se%eral. &irst, West0 European absurd drama was regarded by East0European officialdom as the epitome of West0European bourgeois capitalist decadence and, as a result, East European theatrical producers would be wary of trying to stage a condemned play 0 such an act would blight their career once and for all, ensuring that they would ne%er work in theatre again. The western absurdist plays were regarded a nihilistic and anti0 realistic, especially after ?enneth Tynan had attacked Ionesco as the apostle of anti0realism8 this attach was fre:uently used by the East European officialdom for condemning Western absurd plays. (econdly, after a decade or more of staple conser%ati%e realistic bias, there were fears among theatrical producers that the West European absurd plays might be regarded as far too a%antgarde and esoteric by the general public. Thirdly, there was an atmosphere of relati%e optimism in Eastern Europe in the late !"#s and the !$#s. It was felt that although life under (talin's domination had been terrible, the
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bad times were now past after the dictator's death and full liberalisation was only a matter of time. The in4ustices and deficiencies of the East European systems were seen as due to human frailty rather than being a perennial metaphysical condition8 it was felt that sincere and concerted human effort was in the long run going to be able to put all wrongs right. In a way, this was a continuation of the simplistic (talinist faith in man's total power o%er his predicament. &rom this point of %iew, it was felt that most Western absurdist plays were too pessimistic, negati%e and destructi%e. It was argued <perhaps partially for official consumption= that the East European absurdist plays, unlike their Western counterparts, constituted constructi%e criticism. The line of argument of reformist, pro0liberalisation Mar1ists in '>echoslo%akia in the early !$#s ran as follows8 The Western Theatre of the Absurd recorded the absurdity of human e1istence as an immutable condition. It was a by0product of the continuing disintegration of capitalism. Western absurd plays were irrele%ant in Eastern Europe, since socialist society had already found all answers concerning man's conduct and the meaning of life in general. ;nlike its Western counterpart, East European absurd drama was communicating constructi%e criticism of the deformation of Mar1ism by the (talinists. All that the East0European absurdist plays were trying to do was to remo%e minor blemishes on the face of the Mar1ist model 0 and that was easily done. It was only later that some critics were able to point out that West European absurd dram was not in fact nihilistic and destructi%e and that it played the same constructi%e roles as East European drama attempted to play. At this stage, it was realised that the liberal Mar1ist analysis of East European absurd drama was incorrect8 4ust as with its Western counterpart, the East European absurdist theatre could be seen as a comment on the human condition in general 0 hence its rele%ance also for the West. 5n the few occasions that Western absurdist plays were actually staged in Eastern Europe, the East European audiences found the plays highly rele%ant. A production of Waiting for Godot in /oland in !"$ and in (lo%akia in !$!, for instance, both became something nearing a political demonstration. +oth the /olish and (lo%ak audiences stressed that for them, this was a play about hope 0 hope against hope. The tremendous impact of these productions in Eastern Europe can be perhaps compared with the impact of Waiting for Godot on the inmates of a 'alifornian penitentiary, when it was staged there in !"D. 6ike the inmates of a gaol, people in Eastern Europe are possibly also freer of the numbing concerns of e%eryday li%ing than the a%erage Western man in the street. (ince they li%e under pressure, this somehow brings them closer to the bare essentials of life and they are therefore
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more recepti%e to the works that deal with archetypal e1istential situations than is the case with an ordinary Wes0European citi>en. 5n the whole, East European absurd drama has been far less abstract and esoteric than its West European counterpart. Moreo%er, while the West European drama is usually considered as ha%ing spent itself by the end of the !$#s, se%eral East European authors ha%e been writing highly original plays in the absurdisy mould, well into the !D#s. The main difference between the West European and the East European plays is that while the West European plays deal with a predicament of an indi%idual or a group of indi%iduals in a situation stripped to the bare, and often fairly abstract and metaphysical essentials, the East European plays mostly show and indi%idual trapped within the cogwheels of a social system. The social conte1t of the West European absurd plays is usually subdued and theoretical8 in the East European plays it is concrete, menacing and fairly realistic8 it is usually co%ered by %ery transparent metaphors. The social conte1t is shown as a kind of 'atch0** system 0 it is a set of circumstances whose 4oint impact crushes the indi%idual. The absurdity of the social system is highlighted and fre:uently shown as the result of the actions of stupid, misguided or e%il people 0 this condemnation is of course merely implicit. Although the fundamental absurdity of the life feature in these plays is not intended to be metaphysically conditioned 0 these are primarily pieces of social satire 0 on reflection, the %iewer will realise that there is fundamentally no difference between the 'messages' of the West European and the East European plays 0 e1cept that the East European plays may be able to communicate these ideas more pressingly and more %i%idly to their audiences, because of their first0 hand e%eryday e1perience of the absurdity that surrounds them. At the end of the !$#s, the situation in Eastern Europe changed for the worse. After the in%asion of '>echoslo%akia in !$C, it became apparent that Bussia would not tolerate a fuller liberalisation of the East European countries. '>echoslo%akia was thrown into a harsh, neo0(talinist mould, entering the time capsule of stagnating immobility, in which it has remained e%er since. (ince it had been primarily artists and intellectuals that were spearheading the liberalising reforms of the !$#s, the arts were now sub4ected to a %icious purge. Many well0 known artists and intellectuals were turned into non0persons practically o%ernight8 some left or were later forced to lea the country. All the '>echoslo%ak absurdist playwrights fell into the non0person category. It is perhaps :uite con%incing e%idence of the social rele%ance of their plays that the establishment feared them so much it felt the need to outlaw them. (e%eral of the banned authors ha%e continued writing, regardless of the fact that their plays
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cannot be staged in '>echoslo%akia at present. They ha%e been published and produced in the West. As in the !$#s, these authors are still deeply socially conscious8 for instance, GHcla% .a%el, in the words of Martin Esslin, 'one of the most promising European playwrights of today', is a courageous defender of basic human %alues and one of the most important <and most thoughtful= spokespersons of the non0establishment groupings in '>echoslo%akia. +y contrast, the /olish absurdist playwrights ha%e been able to continue working in /oland undisturbed since the early !$#s, their plays ha%ing been normally published and produced within the country e%en throughout he !D#s. It is perhaps :uite interesting that e%en the Western absurd dramatists ha%e gradually de%eloped a need to defend basic human %alues. They ha%e been showing solidarity with their East European colleagues. Ionesco was always deeply distrustful of politics and the clich7d language of the political establishment. .arold /inter, who took part in a radio production of one of GHcla% .a%el's plays from the !D#s se%eral years ago, has fre:uently spoken in support of the East European writers and playwrights. (amuel +eckett has written a short play dedicated to .a%el, which was staged in &rance in !C) during a ceremony at the ;ni%ersity of Toulouse, which awarded .a%el an honorary doctorate. *Dr +an &ul,-# $%%% http8IIwww.arts.gla.ac.ukI(la%onicIAbsurd.htm

Stud" .uest/ons:

Which are the main differences between the Eastern and the Western absurdist theatreJ What parallels can be drawn to E1istentialismJ What differentiates the theatre of the absurd from the realist theatreJ

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