Playwriting-Absurdism (1 Viewer)

[twisted_sista00]

HI ALL!! I just need some help cos i have decided that I am going to do an absurdist play even though I have never done drama. I really like the concept of an absurdist play and have read a few past works that are in that style and they are sooo cool. BUT cos its such a recent style its kinda hard to find any good information on it, anything that makes any sense anyway, so i was wondering if anyone could provide me with some information about absurdism and some good plays to read. I already know about Waiting For Godot, The Zoo Story and Dumb Waiter. Are there many others???
Id really appreciate some help!!!
Thanx!
Emm

 

[Trigger189]

u would do better to go to the Drama forum..there's a good thread there titled 'HSC Drama Links' ...find that...got heaps of good links to stuff on Absurdism.

 

[miss_salty]

Absurdism has been around for a while but the majority rejects this school of thought coz they don't understand it or find the ideas too depressing.
Try Martin Esslin's "The Theatre of the Absurd". It's a book of essays on some absurdist playwrights/writers. These are some of the main theorists and playwrights of absurdism: Samuel Beckett, Ionesco, Sartre, Albert Camus and Harold Pinter. Watch the Beckett films too, (if you can sit through them). They' re great!
I love "Waiting for Godot". Apparently when that was first performed for a "high class and intellectual"audiences, many walked out coz they thought it was ridiculous/ boring whatever. But when they performed for prison inmates, they absolutely loved it and understood it.
Also see if you can find Pirandello's "6 Characters in Search of an Author". Maybe its more postmodern than absurd but its about 6 characters sitting on stage doing nothing waiting for someone/the author/director to tell them what to do.
Hope these are some help.

 

[aLeeOh!]

hey miss salty.. that sounds like a theatre -on-the-stage version of waiting for godot!

 

[bitchymcbitch]

Tom Stoppard : The Real Inspector Hound, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.. definately check out Stoppard..

Waiting for Godot is great

 

[santaslayer]

KING LEAR!

 

[santaslayer]

esp in the storm scene.....excellent play for absurdism!

 

[Will_Sparky]

David Campton is good. Check out his stuff.

Look around for playwrights writing at the same time as Beckett, Campton etc. Absurdism was a REALLY big thing in theatre, EVERYONE was doing it!