What is “theater of the absurd”? Which performances are allowed to be illogical, and which directors are allowed to turn absurdity into revelation? Our review includes exemplary performances of the most original genre. The ones you need to watch first.

Adherents of the absurd in art in general, following the founders of the genre (Ionesco, Beckett), affirm the meaninglessness human existence and the world is perceived as a waste dump (“a pile of actions, words and destinies” — Wikipedia). There are often no cause-and-effect relationships in their creations, and the heroes cannot understand each other. Although “theater of the absurd” in its direct and precise meaning is rare, absurdist aesthetics are becoming noticeably more popular. It already extends not only to the classics of the absurd, but also to classics in general. The recognized master here, of course, is Yuri Pogrebnichko, whose performances “Yesterday Came Suddenly..” and “The penultimate concert of Alice in Wonderland” based on Milne and Carroll, respectively, have long turned into a cult. But today Butusov also “cuts” Shakespeare, Krymov turns Chekhov into a modern horror film, and at the Gogol Center and the Moscow Youth Theater they are imbued with love for Kharms and Vvedensky. What they all get in the end is highest degree deserves the audience's attention. Kitsch, which any flirtation with the absurd genre could well turn out to be, is absent here. Instead - taste, style and philosophical depth.

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Absurdity in the theater. Source: Absurdity in the theater.

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Absurdity in the theater. Source: Absurdity in the theater.

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from lat. absurdus - absurd, incongruous, senseless) Direction in theater arts, which originated in France in the early 50s. XX century Its founders were the Romanian E. Ionesco and the Irishman S. Beckett, who lived in France. Significant effect on A.t. influenced the existentialist (see: existentialism) philosophical and aesthetic ideas of J.-P. Sartre and C. Camus about the absurd, the absurdity of existence, choice, borderline situation, alienation, loneliness, death. In the language of theater, the concept of existence is expressed in the illogicality of the words and actions of the characters, their lack of communication, space-time shifts, the absence of cause-and-effect relationships, and methods of shock aesthetics (see: Shock) associated with the aestheticization of the ugly. Another source of A.t. - aesthetics of surrealism: the opposition between the real, everyday and surreal - imaginary, dreamlike, hallucinatory, supernatural, mystical - is removed; naturalistic details fit into a surreal context. Significant impact on A.t. The works of F. Kafka and A. Jarry also contributed. In A.t. the absurd is represented as absurd, devoid of meaning and logical connections, incomprehensible to reason. Man appears as a timeless abstraction, a creature doomed to search for the non-existent meaning of life. His chaotic actions among the ruins (in the physical and metaphysical sense of the word) are marked by repetition, monotony, and aimlessness; their mechanical-automatic character is associated with a weakening of the plot, psychologism, inhibition of stage tempo-rhythm, monologism (with a formal dialogic structure), and openness of endings (non-fmito). Favorite techniques of A.t. - parody, grotesque; most characteristic genre- tragic farce. Absurdist intellectual plays do not lend themselves to naturalistic, realistic, psychological directorial interpretations. They gravitate toward the genre of lezidrama (reading drama). The path to their stage decisions is to create an illusory atmosphere intellectual game, a linguistic tournament whose winnings are an artistic paradox. Techniques A.t. was adopted by playwrights A. Adamov and J. Genet (France), G. Pinter and N. Simpson (England), F. Arrabal (Spain). Ideas A.T. found organic development in the aesthetics of theatrical postmodernism. Thus, in the concept of “theater without performance” by C. Bene (Italy), aimed at demystifying the classical “performance theatre,” the key to postmodern deconstruction is the absurdist message, bypassing the text and traditional action. Unlike existentialism, postmodernism interprets absurdity not as the absence of meaning, but as an implicit, inaudible meaning: nonsense produces an excess of meaning, not nonsense (J. Deleuze). Aesthetics A.t. It also has a retrospective application: it is often resorted to when interpreting classics. Just as the work of Dostoevsky, which influenced existentialism, caused a wave of existentialist interpretations of his novels, the works of classic paradoxists of the world theater provoke absurdist interpretations. The most significant among them are associated with the names of W. Shakespeare (existentialist-absurdist interpretation of Hamlet by I. Bergman) and A.P. Chekhov (performances by P. Brooke, S. Solovyov). Through the prism of A.T. The work of the futurists, OBERIUTs and some other figures of the Russian avant-garde is considered. In the modern cultural situation A.t. acquired a nominal meaning associated with the phenomenon of “shifted” artistic consciousness - the conscious “nonsense” of nonclassics. Lit.: As always about the avant-garde. Anthology French theater linen avant-garde. M., 1992; French literature 1945-1990. M., 1995; The?tre fran?ais anjour?hu?. l, 2. M., 1969. H. M..

Story

The term "theater of the absurd" was first used by theater critic Martin Esslin ( Martin Esslin), who wrote a book with the same title in 1962. Esslin saw in certain works artistic embodiment Albert Camus' philosophy about the meaninglessness of life at its core, which he illustrated in his book “The Myth of Sisyphus”. The theater of the absurd is believed to have its roots in the philosophy of Dadaism, poetry of non-existent words and avant-garde art. Despite sharp criticism, the genre gained popularity after World War II, which indicated significant uncertainty human life. The introduced term was also criticized, and attempts were made to redefine it as “anti-theatre” and “new theatre”. According to Esslin, the absurdist theater movement was based on the productions of four playwrights - Eugene Ionesco ( Eugene Ionesco), Samuel Beckett ( Samuel Beckett), Jean Genet ( Jean Genet) and Arthur Adamov ( Arthur Adamov), however, he emphasized that each of these authors had his own unique technique that went beyond the term “absurd.” The following group of writers is often singled out - Tom Stoppard ( Tom Stoppard), Friedrich Dürrenmatt ( Friedrich Dürrenmatt), Fernando Arrabal ( Fernando Arrabal), Harold Pinter ( Harold Pinter), Edward Albee ( Edward Albee) and Jean Tardieu ( Jean Tardieu).

Alfred Jarry is considered the inspiration for the movement. Alfred Jarry), Luigi Pirandello ( Luigi Pirandello), Stanislav Vitkevich ( Stanislaw Witkiewicz), Guillaume Apollinaire ( Guillaume Apollinaire), surrealists and many others.

The "theater of the absurd" (or "new theatre") movement apparently originated in Paris as an avant-garde phenomenon associated with small theaters in the Latin Quarter, and after some time gained worldwide recognition.

In practice, the theater of the absurd denies realistic characters, situations and all other relevant theatrical techniques. Time and place are uncertain and changeable, even the simplest causal connections are destroyed. Pointless intrigues, repetitive dialogues and aimless chatter, dramatic inconsistency of actions - everything is subordinated to one goal: to create a fabulous, and perhaps terrible, mood.

New York Untitled Theater Company No. 61 (Untitled Theater Company #61) announced the creation of " modern theater absurdity”, consisting of new productions in this genre and adaptations of classic stories by new directors. Other initiatives include Festival of works by Eugene Ionesco.

“The traditions of the French theater of the absurd in Russian drama exist in a rare worthy example. You can mention Mikhail Volokhov. But the philosophy of the absurd is still absent in Russia, so it remains to be created.”

Theater of the Absurd in Russia

The basic ideas of the theater of the absurd were developed by members of the OBERIU group back in the 30s of the 20th century, that is, several decades before the emergence of a similar trend in Western European literature. In particular, one of the founders of the Russian theater of the absurd was Alexander Vvedensky, who wrote the plays "Minin and Pozharsky" (1926), "God is Possible All Around" (1930-1931), "Kupriyanov and Natasha" (1931), "Yolka at the Ivanovs" (1939), etc. In addition, other OBERIUTs worked in a similar genre, for example, Daniil Kharms.

Representatives

• Adamov, Arthur (Arthur Adamov)
• Beckett, Samuel (Samuel Beckett)
• Albee, Edward (Edward Albee)
• Ionesco, Eugene Ionesco
• Havel, Vaclav Havel
• Pinter, Harold (Harold Pinter)
• Stoppard, Tom (Tom Stoppard)
• Mrozek, Slawomir (Slawomir Mrozek))
• Genet, Jean (Jean Genet)
• Camus, Albert (Albert Camus)
• Carroll, Lewis (Lewis Carroll)

Notes

Literature

• Martin Esslin, The Theater of the Absurd (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1962)
• Martin Esslin, Absurd Drama (Penguin, 1965)
• E.D. Galtsova, Surrealism and theater. On the issue of theatrical aesthetics of French surrealism (M.: RGGU, 2012)

Links

• Scandalous playwright Mikhail Volokhov about swearing and the philosophy of the theater of the absurd

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See what “Theater of the Absurd” is in other dictionaries:

Absurdism, absurdity, absurdity Dictionary of Russian synonyms. theater of the absurd noun, number of synonyms: 4 absurd (48) ... Synonym dictionary

A general name for post-avant-garde dramaturgy of the 1950-1970s, which inherited the principles of the avant-garde theater OBERIU and created its own poetics of the absurd. The main representatives of T. a. Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee. In this essay we... ... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

From French: Theater de absurde. Title of the book (1961) by Martin Eslin (b. 1918). The expression was formed on the basis of another “drama of the absurd.” In the 1950s and 1960s. this was the name of the plays of avant-garde playwrights E. Ionesco “The Bald Singer”, S. Beckett “In... ... Dictionary of popular words and expressions

A type of modern drama based on the concept of total alienation of man from the physical and social environment. This type of play first appeared in the early 1950s in France and then spread throughout Western Europe and the USA. Performance … Collier's Encyclopedia

theater of the absurd- drama of the absurd - a movement in dramaturgy that depicts the world as chaos, and people’s actions as devoid of meaning, internal regularity... Popular dictionary of the Russian language

Publ. Disapproved A state or other social phenomenon subject to absurd, irrational, and meaningless laws. SP, 118; TS of the twentieth century, 37; Mokienko 2003, 118 ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

This term has other meanings, see Theater of the Absurd (meanings). Theater of the Absurd Genre Arthouse Director Maxim Apryatin Producer Dima Bilan ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Theater of the Absurd (meanings). Theater of the Absurd ... Wikipedia

Theater of the Absurd Theater of the Absurd is an absurdist movement in Western European drama and theater. Theater of the Absurd is a musical album released by the rock group Picnic in 2010. Theater of the Absurd is a 2011 film directed and written by Maxim Apryatin... ... Wikipedia

The first attempts to organize a state public theater in St. Petersburg were made in early XVIII V. In 171116 there were public performances in the theater organized by the sister of Peter I, Princess Natalya Alekseevna. In 1723 24 in St. Petersburg gave ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Books

• Theater of the Absurd. Performances on the political stage, Gubenko Nikolai Nikolaevich, Nikolai Nikolaevich Gubenko - a famous actor, director, screenwriter, director of the Taganka Actors' Theater - is also known for his socio-political activities. He was... Category:

This new phenomenon in theatrical art made itself known in the early 1950s. plays “The Bald Singer” (1950) and “Waiting for Godot” (1952). The strange works of Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett caused heated debate among critics and audiences. The “absurdists” were accused of extreme pessimism and the destruction of all the canons of the theater. However, already at the end of the 1960s. Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for his play “Waiting for Godot,” and Ionesco’s “Thirst for Hunger” was performed at the Comédie Française. Why did the attitude of society in the theater of the absurd change?

It must be said that in the second half of the 20th century. The representatives of the theater of the absurd were not alone in their tragically pessimistic vision of the world. In the philosophical works of Sartre, in the literary experiments of Faulkner, Kafka, Camus, the idea that modern man who has lost faith in God, in the omnipotence of science or in progress, has “lost” the meaning of life and lives in anticipation of death. As Faulkner put it, “life is not movement, but a monotonous repetition of the same movements.” Such a “discovery” makes people experience a feeling of confusion and alienation, and realize the “absurdity” of their existence.

Thus, the ideas of the representatives of the new theatrical movement were fully consistent with the “spirit of the times.” At first, critics and viewers were “confused” by the deliberate combination of obvious tragedy with equally frank irony, which permeated the dramas of Beckett, Ionesco, Gennet, Pinter, and Arrabal. In addition, it seemed that the plays of the “absurdists” were impossible to stage on stage: they lacked the usual “full-fledged” images, there was no intelligible plot, no intelligible conflict, and the words were arranged in almost meaningless chains of phrases. These works were not at all suitable for realistic theater. But when experimental directors took on them, it turned out that the dramaturgy of the absurd provides rich opportunities for original stage solutions. Theatrical convention revealed a multiplicity of semantic layers in the plays of the “absurdists,” from the most tragic to the completely life-affirming, because in life, despair and hope are always nearby.

And onesco

Eugene Ionesco

French playwright Romanian origin, one of the founders of the aesthetic movement of absurdism, recognized classic theatrical avant-garde of the 20th century. Member of the French Academy.

Ionesco himself (born 1912) has repeatedly emphasized that he expresses an extremely tragic worldview. His plays “predict” the transformation of an entire community of people into rhinoceroses (“Rhinoceros” - 1960), tell about killers roaming among us (“The Disinterested Killer” - 1957), and depict unsafe aliens from anti-worlds (“Aerial Pedestrian” - 1963).

The playwright seeks to expose the danger of conformist consciousness, which absolutely depersonalizes a person. To achieve his artistic goal, Ionesco decisively destroys the seemingly harmonious logic of our thinking, parodying it. In the comedy “The Bald Singer” he reproduces the “automated”, “clichéd” worldview of his heroes, creates a phantasmagoric performance, exposing the absurdity of trivial phrases and banal judgments.

The famous director Peter Brook was one of the first to appreciate the stage possibilities of absurdist drama.

In “Victims of Duty” (1953) we are talking about people who consider themselves obligated to fulfill any demands of the state, to be certainly loyal citizens. The play is based on the technique of transforming images, changing character masks. This technique of external transformation of a person, which, however, does not change his essence, but only reveals his inner emptiness, is one of Ionesco’s favorites. He also uses it in one of his most famous plays, “Chairs” (1952). The heroine of the play, Semiramis, appears either as the old man’s wife or as his mother, while at the same time the old man himself is either a man, or a soldier, or “the marshal of this house,” or an orphan. The people Ionesco portrays are victims of life's utilitarian goals; they cannot go beyond the narrow circle of routine, they are blind from birth, crippled by cliches. The lack of spiritual aspirations makes them prisoners who do not want to be released.

B eckett

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)

“To Beckett we owe perhaps the most impressive and most original dramatic works of our time.” Peter Brook

Irish writer, poet and playwright. Representative of modernism in literature. One of the founders of the theater of the absurd. He gained worldwide fame as the author of the play Waiting for Godot, one of the most significant works of world drama of the 20th century. Laureate Nobel Prize on literature 1969. Having an Irish passport, he lived most of his life in Paris, writing in English and French.

Beckett, unlike Ionesco, is interested in a different range of issues. main topic his creativity is loneliness. Beckett's heroes need communication, kindred spirits, but due to their own structure (or the structure of the world?) they are deprived of these necessary things. All their lives they peer into their inner world, trying to correlate it with the surrounding reality, but their conclusions are inconsolable, and their existence is hopeless.

This is how Vladimir and Estragon appear before us, the characters in the tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot.” It was no coincidence that they found themselves on a deserted road, the only sign of which was a dried tree. This is a symbol of the heroes’ alienation from life. They try to remember the past, but the memories are vague and confused, they try to understand what led them to complete loneliness, but is unable to do this. The dialogue and the accompanying actions are structured like a sad clownery. Vladimir and Estragon are surrounded by endless space, huge world, but he seems closed to the heroes.

Beckett also uses the symbol of isolation in such plays as “The Game” (1954), “Happy Days” (1961), “Krapp’s Last Tape” (1957), thus revealing the incompatibility of his characters with the environment. “Nobody comes, nothing happens” - this phrase from “Waiting for Godot” becomes the leitmotif of Beckett’s dramaturgy, which tells about a man who has lost his life guidelines and turned almost into a phantom. The playwright's characters themselves are not entirely sure that they still exist. Noteworthy is the order Vladimir and Estragon give to the boy sent by Godot: “Tell him that you saw us.”

Unlike Ionesco or Beckett, Mrozek prefers an almost realistic manner of constructing dramatic action.

An important feature artistic method Beckett is a combination of poetry and banality. The playwright either lifts the viewer to the heights of the struggle of the human spirit, or plunges into the abyss of the base, and sometimes crudely physiological.

Beckett's plays are always mysterious: they require sophisticated stage interpretations, so the playwright embodied some of his works on stage personally. Thus, the mini-tragedy “The Sound of Steps” was staged by the author in West Berlin. A special place in Beckett’s work is occupied by the miniature “Dénouement” (1982), written specifically for famous actor J.-L. Barro. In it, the director's assistant prepares a performer for a role in one of Beckett's plays. He still won't say a word.

woman

To his wife: “I never reproduced life, but life itself involuntarily gave birth to me or highlighted, if they already existed in my soul, images that I then tried to convey through characters or events.”

Jean Genet (1910-1986). French writer, a poet and playwright whose work is controversial. The main characters of his works were thieves, murderers, prostitutes, pimps, smugglers and other inhabitants of the social bottom.

The most extravagant of the representatives of the theater of the absurd is Jean Genet. As a ten-year-old boy, he was convicted of theft and ended up in a correctional colony, where, in his own words, he enthusiastically joined the world of vice and crime. Later he served in the Foreign Legion and wandered around the ports of Europe. In 1942 he went to prison, where he wrote the book “Our Lady of Flowers”; in 1948 he was sentenced to lifelong exile in a colony. However, many cultural figures stood up for the writer, already well-known by that time, and he was pardoned.

Genet’s main task was to challenge bourgeois society, which he fully succeeded in achieving with talented but scandalously shocking plays, which included “The Maids” (1947), “The Balcony” (1956), “The Negroes” (1958) and “Screens.” ” (1961).

J.-P. Sartre supported the “absurdists”, wrote reviews of their plays, and he owns a book about the life and work of Genet.

“The Maids” is one of the most famous dramatic works To my wife. It tells how the sisters Solange and Claire, rescued by their mistress, decide to take possession of her property by poisoning the mistress. To this end, they slander her friend, ensuring that he goes to prison. But Monsieur is unexpectedly freed, and the treacherous sisters are exposed. Although the plot “suggests” a melodramatic development of the action, “The Maids” is built in a completely different, grotesque key. In the absence of Madame, the sisters take turns portraying her, transforming themselves so much into their mistress that they forget about themselves, temporarily freeing themselves from the unenviable role they play in reality. This is a play about life in which dream and reality collide in an ugly way. In Genet’s drama, as a rule, completely fictitious, incredible events appear in which the real world familiar to us is bizarrely modified and distorted, which allows the author to express his attitude towards it.

A rrabal and Pinter

Fernando Arrabal

Spanish screenwriter, playwright, film director, actor, novelist and poet. Lives in France since 1955.

Spanish playwright Fernando Arrabal (b. 1932) was fascinated by Calderon and Brecht in his youth, and was significantly influenced by these authors. His first play, “Picnic,” was staged in 1959 in Paris. The heroes of the play, Sapo and Sepo, are soldiers of two armies at war with each other. Sapo takes Sepo prisoner. It turns out that the soldiers have a lot in common.

Both do not want to kill anyone, both are ignorant of military affairs, and participation in battles has not separated them from the habits of peaceful life: one knits a sweater in between firefights, and the other makes rag flowers. Ultimately, the heroes come to the conclusion that all the other soldiers also do not want to fight, and they must say this out loud and go home. Inspired, they dance to cheerful music, but at this moment a machine-gun burst cuts them down, making it impossible to carry out their plan. The absurdity of the situation in the play is deepened by the fact that it also involves Sapo’s parents, who suddenly arrived at the front to visit their son.

Arrabal's work is characterized by the contrast between the deliberate childishness of his heroes and the cruelty of the circumstances in which they have to exist. Among the most famous works playwrights include “The Two Executioners” (1956), “First Communion” (1966), “The Garden of Pleasure” (1969, “The Inquisition” (1982).

Harold Pinter

English playwright, poet, director, actor, public figure. One of the most influential British playwrights of his time. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2005.

The artistic method of Harold Pinter (1930 – 2008), author of the plays “The Birthday Party” (1957), “The Dumb Waiter” (1957), “The Watchman” (1960), “Landscape” (1969), is close to expressionism. His dark tragicomedies are populated by mysterious characters whose conversations parody ordinary forms of human communication. The plot and construction of the plays are in conflict with their apparent plausibility. Looking at the bourgeois world as if through a magnifying glass, Pinter uniquely depicts the suffering of people who find themselves on the margins of life.

Source – Large Illustrated ENCYCLOPEDIA

Theater of the Absurd – Ionesco, Beckett, Genet, Arrabal and Pinter updated: August 31, 2017 by: website

Antidrama (or “theater of the absurd”)

The aesthetics of antidrama originated in mid-19th century. Thus, Friedrich Nietzsche contrasted reason with will, which he recognized as leading in human activity, defending the irrational direction in human life. Nietzsche's philosophy is largely continued by Schopenhauer's theory of the dominant of the irrational. The successor of this philosophy is the French thinker Henri Bergson. He argued that life cannot be understood, it can only be felt, sensed intuitively. To do this, you need to break away from reality, achieve purity of vision, that is, it is necessary to separate the rational (reasonable) and intuitive (sensual) in art. This philosophy is a response to the post-war spiritual crisis when life was devoid of moral foundations, goals, and was unstable. Pessimism is felt in everything, even in the very perception of life.

That is why playwrights preached the liberation of man from the power of the rational. If truth can be known only through feelings, then the mind interferes with this knowledge, and the authors broke all the canons of genres that existed before (hence the prefix “anti” in the title). Playwrights preferred the abstract because, firstly, it helped express the sensual, and secondly, it refuted bourgeois formalist morality.

Theater of the Absurd (“antidrama”) is a common name for the neo-avant-garde dramaturgy of the 1950s-1960s, which created its own poetics of the absurd. The Theater of the Absurd, along with the “new novel” and the “new wave” cinema, was the last striking manifestation of modernism in France. The main representatives are Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett. It was in relation to their plays that the term “anti-drama” was first used.

The philosophical basis of the theater of the absurd was the philosophy of existentialism, the main position of which is the absurdity of the surrounding world and human existence.

In 1950, Ionesco’s play “The Bald Singer” was staged in Paris, and at the same time the first “anti-plays” by Arthur Adamov appeared. Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994) called his theater “anti-thematic, anti-ideological, anti-realistic”, contrasted it with all variants of “engaged” theater, and harshly judged Brecht and Sartre. “No ideas,” Ionesco declared, constantly, however, recalling his ideas of the absurdity, the meaninglessness of the world, the chaos before which man is powerless and doomed. "It doesn't mean anything speaking words things about which nothing can be said”—this is the task of the “theater of the absurd.”

In Ionesco's first plays this task was carried out literally. In “The Bald Singer,” the characters spoke nonsense to the accompaniment of a clock that struck first seven o’clock, then three o’clock, then remained silent, striking whatever it pleased. The clock has lost its ability to measure time, because time as an objective category has lost its meaning along with outside world who have lost reality. Words seem to break loose, since they are not restrained by any objectively existing reality. In “Chairs” (1951), “reality”, that is, the characters appearing on stage - according to the author’s instructions - should seem extremely unreal, while the characters who remain invisible create the impression of absolutely reliable, the impression of a crowd filling the stage, through which impossible to get through.

“Since the modern world is in a state of disintegration,” wrote Ionesco, total disintegration must reign on the stage, the disintegration of both words and actions, and characters, and circumstances, dramatic genres and styles. The initial stage of the “theater of the absurd” returns to the scandalous Dadaist and surrealist performances of the 10s and 20s.

Later, the straightforward reproduction of the absurd in an absurd text will be replaced by a depiction of an absurd world, reminiscent of existentialism, which was Ionesco’s philosophical reference point. At this stage, it becomes especially obvious that Ionesco’s farces parodied social existence, devoid of meaning, reduced to the level of mechanical actions, parodied the triumph of speech cliches and total unification in “consumer society.”

"Rhinoceros" (1959) tells about the strange transformation of the inhabitants of a certain settlement into rhinoceroses, which seems to everyone to be normal and natural, even desirable due to the devaluation of everything human. This tragicomedy can be read as a satirical exposure of fascism and totalitarianism, but Ionesco himself warned that he was targeting “man in general,” that he was exposing “ideology and history.” Also, the tragicomedy “The King is Dying” (1962) - not only about the Fifth Republic, not only about the decrepit Charles de Gaulle, but about humanity, subject to death, struck by incurable illness, about reality itself, which disappears along with the king at the moment of his death , dissolution into oblivion. The triumph of death, the extermination of everyone and everything is demonstrated both in the invented history of the death of the city (“Games of Massacre”, 1970), and in the alteration of Shakespeare (“Shakespeare is the founder of the theater of the absurd”), making all his heroes vile and bloodthirsty (“Macbeth” , 1972).

The French-Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) wrote first in English, then, after moving to Paris (in 1938), in both English and French. In his novels (“Murphy”, “Molloy”, etc.) a fundamental idea was formed - “there is nothing more real than nothing” - which is realized in Beckett’s “anti-dramas”, which consistently and purposefully demonstrate the destructive power of this “nothing” .

In the play “Waiting for Godot” (1953), which made Beckett famous, the action is reduced to waiting for a certain Godot, and the characterization of the “inactive persons”, Vladimir and Estragon, is entirely exhausted by this state, since they remember nothing, know nothing, can do nothing. In the play “The End of the Game” (1957), Hamm’s parents sit in garbage cans, reminding themselves of themselves by demanding porridge, and Hamm and Clov speak with difficulty, trying to express their condition, to realize themselves in the most elementary manifestations of their either not yet formed, or already degraded organisms. The heroine of the “anti-drama” “Oh, beautiful days! (1963), the gift of speech has been returned to her, but nothing more has been given: she is slowly being swallowed up by the earth, in the first act she is stuck up to her waist, in the second - up to her neck, but her hand reaches out not to the revolver, but to the comb, because the next one has come "great day". In the small “Comedy” (1966), the characters - two numbered women and a man - almost lose the ability to speak, without, however, acquiring the quality of the faces of “actors”: they lean out of the jugs and say something when a ray of light falls on them, and in the darkness they plunge into oblivion.

Since Beckett did not talk about the absurd world, did not depict it, but expressed “nothing” in adequate forms, decay became not only a characteristic of the characters, but also a quality of the dramatic form itself. Beckett was very consistent, “nothing” made itself felt in every new work, which lost the signs of a certain genre and even literary kind, - Beckett wrote some “texts”, fragments more prosaic than dramatic, as soon as speech faded away, silence approached, as did inaction. All that remained was the possibility of describing certain states that were unsuccessfully trying to be realized, a swarming of some masses, abstract bodies appearing and disappearing, in the middle of emptiness, discolored space landscape-- “imagining the imaginary in the same chimerical darkness as other chimeras.”

The main theme of all anti-plays is the absurdity of the world, which manifests itself in the violation of logical connections between objects and phenomena, in the meaninglessness of reality. The strangeness, absurdity, and illogicality of life are demonstrated through:

• 1) Irony, farce, parody, grotesque.
• 2) Destruction of linguistic forms, deliberate illogical phrases, automatism of language. The motive of “getting bogged down in words” appears, as if in a quagmire.
• 3) The usual logical cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena and objects are broken and replaced by their random or associative linkage. Dream logic is also used, which is not subject to conscious control.
• 4) Metaphorical conveyance of feelings of shock, fear, conveyance of surprise at life. These feelings certainly appear as soon as a person realizes that all his life values ​​are meaningless and are an illusion. It is designed to draw the attention of an ordinary person to the tragedy of life, because in its Everyday life a person is not inclined to think about issues of life and death and gets bogged down in vulgarity.
• 5)Use of a “borderline situation”.
• 6) Main motive: “death as decay, decay, silence.”
• 7) Literal implementation of metaphors and neologisms - this is what science fiction in anti-drama is built on.
• 8) The connection between the tragic and the comic.
• 9) Use of “minus techniques”. “Minus technique” is a significant rejection of the visual principles of a traditional character (intrigue, action, characters, etc.). For example, the heroes of antidrama are antiheroes. In Ionesco's early plays the heroes do not have individual traits, they are “puppet” heroes. The actions of the characters are determined not by their characters, but by the situation in which they find themselves. Also, the play is destroyed at the level of genre, then episodes, lines and phrases.
• 10) The place of action and time in the theater of the absurd are often abstract, this emphasizes their universality (“always and everywhere”).