Absurdism, Samuel Beckett; Play Project & Workshop

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


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. Please read this play for Tuesday. Expect a quiz since you are reading this one alone.

Writing Prompt: in your journals/notebooks, please write 3 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 3 metaphors.


Once you have 3 metaphors, select one to build an absurdist play around. Use the characteristics of Absurdism above to help give you ideas.

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.

In the lab: Keep writing your play projects. These drafts are due Thursday, Jan. 21. Also, please review Rosalia's play draft and provide some advice or feedback to her. The essential question is: how can she improve her play? Please give her some written suggestions/comments.

The Playwrights' Festival is occurring next week. The schedule is as follows:

• Monday: Day off for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! Celebrate his accomplishments to history and our country! Use this time to write if you are behind in your project page requirements!
• Tuesday: Writers meet the actors in the blackbox 3-4. Then they go to the lab to choose actors for their project and write a play from 4-7 or 8. Dinner will be provided!
• Wednesday: Writers meet with directors/actors 3-4. Directors work with actors from 4-7.
• Thursday: Directors work with actors. Block plays. Send tech requirements to producer. 3-7. Writer are not called this day, but may help out if directors want them to.
• Friday: Directors and actors tech the show. 3-5. Then dinner provided for actors/directors from 5-6. Call at 6; show at 7.

HOMEWORK: Complete Waiting for Godot. Study for your final exam. The final exam will be given on Monday, January 25. If you are absent for this exam you will receive a zero for 25% of your grade this marking period. There are no classes for this subject Wednesday and Friday of exam week.


When we return from exam week, we will be starting our new course: Film Studies.