Absurdist Theatre

Characteristics of Theatre of the Absurd

Theatre of the Absurd communicates a personal intuition of the human situation, the playwrights own sense of being, and their individual sense of the world. This is the subject matter of the Theatre of the Absurd, and it determines its form, which represents a convention of the stage different from the “Realistic” theatre of the time.

Theatre of the Absurd does the following:

1. Conveys information or presents the problems ot destinies of characters that exist outside the author’s inner world.
2. It presents a world without meaning.
3. It is theatre of situation as against a theatre of events in sequence
4. Language is based on patterns of concrete images rather than argument and discursive speech.
5. It presents a “sense of being”, it does not solve problems of conduct and morals.
6. It does not tell a story, but communicates a pattern of poetic images.

Theatre of the Absurd is characterised by:


1. Highly artificial language, sometimes eloquent and poetic, sometimes crude and ugly
2. Words and language considered part of the spectacle. Words frequently used as sound and noise. Conventional dialogue is replaced by illogical and disconnected speech. Speech is frequently confusing and nonsensical.
3. Silences are an integral part of the dialogue
4. Discord between action and dialogue, resulting in meaningless actions
5. Considerable inaction on stage.
6. References to God’s abandoning of the human race to isolation
7. The abandonment of conventional theatrical time frames and meaningful settings, emphasising the idea that without hope, time and space are meaningless
8. Repetition of verbal and non-verbal routines
9. The idea that within the concept of time, everything has happened before.
10. Idle songs, dances and jokes
11. Movement frequently linked to ritualistic ceremony, circus activity and routines and techniques used by Commedia dell’arte, itinerant jugglers, mime troupes, music hall melodramas, acrobatics and silent films.
12. Violence
13. Use of symbol and metaphor to emphasise ideas
14. Comedy of situation and action
15. Incorporation of the supernatural: Inanimate objects coming to life and taking on inordinate significance
16. Ambiguity
17. Characters are one dimensional, involved in pointless activity.