drama

Definition of Absurd Drama
The play on the stage is what it is without before or after, the action is pure and complete and immediately viewed by the audience. Drama is a genre of literature in which the text and performance both have equal importance. It is true that firstly the ideas of the dramatist are penned down in the form of text and performance comes secondly. A new form of drama made its appearance that disqualified all the standards and rules by which a drama has been appreciated from many centuries and was classified under the label ‘The Theatre of the Absurd'. Marking the difference between a good play and an absurd play, Martin Esslin opines:
If a good play must have a cleverly constructed story, these have no story or plot to speak of : if a good play is judged by subtlety of characterization and motivation, these are often without recognizable characters and present the audience with almost mechanical puppets; if a good play has to have a fully explained theme, which is neatly exposed and finally solved, these often have neither a beginning nor an end; if a good play is to hold the mirror upto nature and portray the manners and mannerisms of the age in finely observed sketches, these seem often to be reflections of dreams and nightmares' if a good play relies on witty repartee and pointed dialogues, these often consist of incoherent babblings. (21-22)
Let us graphically discuss the basic features of good plays and absurd plays.
Good plays                                                Absurd plays
Well-knit plot                                            Circular structure
Recognizable character                             Mechanical puppet
Spectacle                                                   Antithetical to purpose
Elucidated theme                                       Arbitrary theme
Music                                                         Trivial presence of music
Logically built up diction                           Incoherent babblings

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The original or dictionary meaning of absurd is ‘Out of harmony'. But the word has a different meaning when it is used in the theatre of the absurd. N.A.Scott defines it, "Man yearns for some measure of happiness in an orderly, a rational and a reasonably predictable world; when he finds misery in a disorderly, an irrational and an unpredictable world, he's oppressed by the absurdity of the disparity between the universe as he wishes it to be and as he sees it."(qtd. in Eliopulos 40)
The metaphor of direct expression dominates the stage of absurd dramatist. Roderich Robertson opines, "The absurdists have attempted to make their stage a universal metaphor – it stands directly for all the world."(qtd. in Eliopulos 40) Some critics might argue that all plays are metaphorical. Uniqueness of absurd drama lies in that it presents on stage not characters but puppets who parrot the lines they have learnt long before, life seizes to be a circle and is presented as an endless effort to gain the destination. The dramatists make an attempt to find out the equation between man and the world. The absurd theatre, according to Ionesco is, "that which is devoid of purpose…Cut off from his religious metaphysical and transcendental roots, man is lost, all his actions become senseless, absurd and useless."(qtd. in Esslin 23). The major dramatists of this school of absurd drama are Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet and Jean Tardieu. Though it has made its centre position in the power house of the modern movement Paris yet it has international flavour to it. It has its centre in Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Eastern Europe and the United States.
The theatre of the Absurd presents the anxiety of man that arises from the fact that he is surrounded by the areas of impenetrable darkness. In this chaos, he will never be able to know his true nature and purpose and no one can provide him the ready-made rules of conduct to follow. The most striking question is why should the emphasis shifted away from traditional form to new one? The appropriate answer may be because the play write no longer believe in presenting the clarity of definition and neatness of resolution. The social and spiritual reasons for such changes are manifold
and complex:

• Ø The decay of religious faiths which had a beautiful beginning with the Enlightenment and empower Nietzsche to speak of the ‘death of God'.
• Ø The destruction of liberal faith in social upliftment as a result of First World War.
• Ø The marching steps into barbarism.
• Ø The breakdown of the hopes of racial social revolution as announced by Marx after Stalin had converted the Soviet Union into a totalitarian tyranny, mass murder, brief but cruel and harsh rule of Hitler during Second World War.

As a consequence, the spiritual emptiness spreaded in effluent and prosperous societies of Western Europe and United States. This emptiness gave birth to this new form of Drama. Absurd drama parodies the traditional features of a drama. Its failure in its early performance lies in audience's expectations of a well structured dramatic pattern. The same audience/reader, who found absurd drama non-sensical, enjoyed the senseless cross-talk of the comedians in music hall and equally appreciated the stories of ‘Alice in Wonderland'. This was only because they had a habit to visit and digest such types of entertainment while absurd drama was something new and it will take time to have its roots. It took some time but the people began to praise absurd plays. The reason for its success lies in the fact that the audience went to this theatre because it had become fashionable to show astonishment and regret about them in parties. The unexpected success of Waiting for Godot by the convicts of San Quentin opened ways for such types of dramas. The contrary critics argued that the convicts praised it because they have no preconceived ideas and set expectations about the well established plays. That is why they neglected the mistakes like lack of plot, suspense, puppet like characters, disintegrated language which were highlighted by well known critics. In spite of these claims, the theatre gained world-wide popularity and created its fascination in the theatre world. The great success and the wide acclaim given to the plays of Pinter, Adamov, and Inoesco proved that the nonsense plays have some sense which can be understood.