The Theatre of the Absurd

The plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet, and a number of other avant-garde writers in France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United States mark a new development in the contemporary theatre. Because its basic premise is the ultimate absurdity of the human condition, Martin Esslin has called it the Theatre of the Absurd. In this book he analyzes the work of its major exponents and traces its antecedents-the mimus of antiquity, the Commedia dell’Arte, the French Harlequin-ade, the English music hall, American vaudeville, the expressionist and surrealist drama of the early twentieth cen-tury, the Keystone Kops, dadaism, Brecht’s epic theatre, and the Marx brothers’ movies. At the same time he shows how it reflects the changes in science, psychology, and philosophy that have been taking place in the past fifty years. A student of the theatre in both Europe and America, Mr. Esslin has based his interpretation on productions of the plays in. different countries and on personal interviews with many of the dramatists. The Theatre of the Absurd, he concludes, mirrors the present situation of Western man and will leave a permanent imprint on the history of drama.

Martin Esslin is also author of Brecht: The Man and His Work (A244)