Absurdism; Come & Go; Play; Waiting for Godot; and Samuel Beckett

Weather got you down? Feeling as if there's no point to life? Check out this style of writing...

Characteristics of Absurdism:

1. Characters are often threatened by an unknown outside force.
2. The world or diegesis of the play/film is unpredictable or lacks meaning which the characters must contend with.
3. There is often an element of horror or tragedy; characters are often in hopeless situations or trapped.
4. Dialogue is often playful, full of nonsense, repetition, or engages in silly wordplay or banter.
5. Plays are often funny, although theme is usually serious and symbolic. Absurdist theatre is often called "tragicomedy", having elements of broad humor and tragedy.
6. There is often a good deal of farce (mistaken identity, physical comedy, slapstick, sudden entrances and interruptions, etc.)
7. Theatre of the absurd often presents characters failing at something without suggesting a solution to the problem. Characters are often "losers" who cannot dig themselves out of the problems they find themselves in.
8. Characters are often unable to communicate with others (particularly about their feelings, desires, or needs).
9. Plot is often cyclical or repetitive.
10. Plots have a dreamlike or surreal quality to them, akin to nightmare. Plot events are often taken at face value; characters are unwilling or uninterested in examining "why?" something happens and instead react to "what" happens. Therefore plot is often lacking the cause. The effect is often stressed as being more important.

For no point in particular, let's go check out Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Today in your journals/notebooks, please write 5 metaphors. While one half of the metaphor may be a grand human idea: freedom, love, justice, revenge, marriage, hope, wealth, etc. the metaphor you create should be fairly concrete: "hope is a thing with feathers", "love is a battlefield", "revenge is a dish best served cold". Come up with 5 metaphors. 

Now let's chat about absurdism.

Although various classical and important plays have toyed with absurd situations, it was the futility of WWII combined with the surreal and existential that birthed such a movement. When any moment we are threatened with total destruction, what else is there to do but sit stunned and blankly in misunderstanding, or weave a web of words that lack meaning?

Traditional theater often attempts to show a realistic portrayal of life. Situations and characters are firmly rooted in reality and the common human actions that result in drama. Most plays trust the word. Words we use carry meaning. But what occurs when, with the threat of nuclear annihilation, we are not able to use our human reason and the symbol of such reason (our words) to alter our own fate? If we remove the trust in language, reason, logic, and traditional conventions of story telling, we are left with something that has no inherent meaning, but in that shape is given meaning by its opposite. Modern life is futile, lacking a sensible God figure, in which the answer to the question "what is the meaning of life?" is a resounding blackness or emptiness. All is meaningless, particularly that which is supposed to bring the comfort of meaning (i.e., words). 

In the hands of playwrights like Samuel Beckett, the portrayal of a such meaningless absurdity becomes a metaphor for our own modern lives--filled as they are with anxiety, fear, hesitation, incompetence, misunderstanding, and the lack of fulfillment.

Today let's watch two short plays by Beckett: Come and Go and Play. "Play" with actor Alan Rickman.

After viewing the two plays, you will have two options. One is to read Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot by yourself in the lab and to study for the final exam given next class. The other is to study for the exam and complete the following writing task as extra credit:

1. Choose one of your metaphors and twist it into a premise for a short 5-minute play. A 5-minute play is about half the length of a 10-minute play (so we're talking about 4-5 pages in script format). You will need to know what you want to say about the human condition. If you chose hope, for example, what is your opinion of hope for us humans in this crazy world? Philosophize. Make a point. Have an opinion. Once you have a premise (a one or two sentence concept for a play), move on to the next part of this exercise:

2. Brainstorm possible settings (remember that you want to rely on metaphor/symbol rather than common sense and logic), characters (characters are often allegorical, representing ideas), and infuse your props and costumes (also part of a setting) with meaning as we did last class with our brainstorming exercise.

3. After you have a setting, and a character or two, begin writing. Now. This is the trick...write. Don't worry about plot. Don't worry about meaning. Focus on your premise, yes, but don't worry about the lines. Let them flow from you quickly, without your brain getting in the way. Words in the absurdist sense are meaningless, so why worry about words? Yes, they should be real words (those which for humans have a meaning), but when spouted out one after the other like a water hose, they, too, cannot be relied on to convey any kind of truth.

Write for the rest of the period without stopping. Force your way through writer's block. At the end of class write a line that repeats or states your metaphor.

4. Take the script home with you and add details, dialogue, stage directions, and anything else that you can think of within the time limit of having the play draft done by next class. Don't judge your work. Just work with it.

HOMEWORK: Complete Waiting for Godot. Study for your final exam. The final exam will be given on Thursday, January 22. If you are absent for this exam you will have to attend next week's classes. Otherwise, next week you are able to choose whether or not you want to come to this class. The lab will be open during that time to complete any writing you need to complete.