At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, art finally appeared, programmed for misunderstanding. “Finally,” if only because now you don’t have to pretend to be an expert so as not to be considered ignorant. Being carried away by the theater of the absurd and the “new novel”, you don’t have to foam at the mouth to explain to your friends the hidden meaning, not obvious subtext, symbolism and other important components that need analysis and analysis. Let them be indignant, let them tear books and toss pages like cards on a gambling table, where you have trump cards hidden under green cloth. You know that art is not identical with reality, it does not obey its laws and is not obliged to record it. On the other hand, any righteous anger towards him is a compliment for the creators, and this is exactly the effect they wanted. The founder and theorist of the theater of the absurd, Eugene Ionesco, spoke about his productions:

“Seven years have passed since my first play was performed in Paris. It was a modest success, a mediocre scandal. My second play had a slightly bigger failure, a slightly bigger scandal. It was only in 1952, in connection with "Chairs", that events began to take a broader turn. Every evening there were eight people in the theater who were very dissatisfied with the play, but the noise it caused was heard by a significantly larger number of people in Paris, all over France, it reached the very German border. And after the appearance of my third, fourth, fifth ... eighth plays, the rumor about their failures began to spread with giant strides. The indignation crossed the English Channel ... It passed to Spain, Italy, spread to Germany, moved on ships to England ... "

Do you see regret? He doesn't even exist. If the imitation of classical models crawling on its hind legs does not evoke emotions at all, except for a sluggish superiority over those who do not go to cultural enlightenment, then the play “The Bald Singer”, for example, evokes diabolical emotions, it is akin to a magical ritual.

In the 1950s, the Theater of the Absurd entered the scene. The so-called anti-drama completely destroys the classical theater, presenting the alogism of life in hilarious extremes. The exclamation "This is complete nonsense!" - only a compliment to the skill of Ionesco, Ibson, Vian, Cocteau and other new playwrights.

The theater of the absurd relies on surrealism (form) and existentialism (content): plays are devoid of plot, cause-and-effect relationships and fable-like morality, which many viewers fiercely seek out in performances; they are frankly absurd, ugly beautiful and outrageous. Language is not a means of communication, but a formless decoration: against its background, an everyday, monotonous and meaningless game of life is played out. Spatial-temporal shifts completely confuse the trace of the desired meaning. Do not look for the secret intricacies of remarks and actions: they are tailored by chance, like a factory marriage.

Ionesco on creating the plays: “I conscientiously rewrote phrases taken from my manual. Carefully rereading them, I did not learn English, but amazing truths: that there are seven days in a week, for example. This is what I knew before. Or: “the floor is below, the ceiling is above”, which I also knew, but probably never seriously thought about it or perhaps forgot, but it seemed to me just as indisputable as the rest, and just as true ... ".

Shocking is not an end in itself, but a means to convey already known, hackneyed truths in a new form, in modern language. Few people like the routine, it reduces their teeth from the same thing. Many accuse the Theater of the Absurd of vulgarity (scenes of a sexual nature, profanity), cruelty and propaganda of violence (fights to the point of blood, aesthetics of the ugly), etc. But what is immoral in life acquires a purpose and value in art, reality and fiction are not the same as "the ceiling is above, the floor is below."

What is the play "The Bald Singer" about?

This is an attempt to ask the question "what is the meaning of life?" without seeking an answer. The monotony of life, multiplied by the loneliness of each of us, leads to despair those who find the strength and ability to recognize it. Yes, the existentialists said, there is no point, a person is thrown into the world by accident, but the world does not give a damn about him. There is no purpose, no calling, no duty to the Almighty to behave well. We live for the sake of the very process of life, we relish the little things that are understandable, and nothing more. Hence the complete absence of a plot in the works: in our everyday life it also does not exist, there are only far-fetched goals and means, like a mission in a computer game. However, the next conquered castle or the killed orc will not make the gamer feel better, he is drawn into the process of conquest and murder. No need to dissemble: a person is aggressive, and he likes fights, and sex, and violence. The Theater of the Absurd is more honest than many art forms.

It would be possible to tell the story, but there is none. Look for meaning, but there is none. Throw quotes, but there is no demonstrative wisdom for followers. With a formal dialogic structure, everything said is a monologue. Scattered phrases are heard in the void, no one perceives them, and they are turned to nowhere, like many of our conversations. The ending is open and no one explains anything. Curtain. This is such a useless book.

In fact, all plays of this kind are written in the tragifarce genre, which is characterized by grotesque, parody, kitsch and artistic banter. Ionesco exaggerated marital apathy and impenetrable petty-bourgeois life, parodied the aimless chatter of “friends” (who are unimaginably bored with each other, but it’s customary to get together and be cheerful), mocked their worldly sophistication on the verge of stupidity and showed our kitsch consciousness in all its glory. We do not talk, but make excuses, we do not talk, but maintain the illusion of a conversation, we love to sleep in warmth and eat in comfort with a complete sense of dreary security. Thought becomes so primitive that it sinks into it like butter, which is better at the grocer's on the corner. Painful reflection, as a reaction to the tragic events of the 20th century, inspired playwrights to express vain expectations, unconscious but insurmountable alienation of people from each other, comical attempts to “live as if nothing had happened” after world wars and global upheavals.

Not everyone likes the Theater of the Absurd, many even deny that this "pornography" has the right to be staged. It's hard to watch, and even harder to play. Ionesco attracted non-professionals to participate in his productions, as the actors played, and did not live on stage. They were not ready to experiment, they were taught differently. But unprepared, random people behaved exactly like the townsfolk after dinner and their guests. The reason for this attitude is that the author of The Bald Singer understood the theater differently than his predecessors:

Theater is what is shown on the stage

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Starting from the 50s of the XX century, plays with a meaningless plot are increasingly being staged on various theater stages, presenting to the viewer, it would seem, a combination of the incompatible. The so-called theater of the absurd (or drama of the absurd )  is a theater of paradox, a “tragedy of speech”, an experimental theater that requires improvisation not only from the actor, but also from the viewer. The theater of the absurd challenged cultural traditions and, to some extent, the political and social order.

Three French and one Irish authors stood at its origins — Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov and Samuel Beckett.

Wanting to give a name to such unusual plays, the English critic Martin Esslin in 1961 introduced the concept "theater of the absurd" . But, for example, Eugene Ionesco considered the term "theater of the absurd" not very suitable, he suggested another one - "theater of ridicule" . And the idea of ​​​​such a genre of the play came to him while studying English from a self-instruction manual. E. Ionesco was surprised to find that in ordinary words there is an abyss of absurdity, due to which sometimes smart and grandiloquent phrases completely lose their meaning. The playwright explained the purpose of such a play in this way: “We wanted to bring to the stage and show the audience the very existential existence of a person in its fullness, integrity, in its deep tragedy, its fate, that is, awareness of the absurdity of the world.”

Indeed, the events of any play of the theater of the absurd are far from reality and do not seek to approach it. Incredible and unimaginable can manifest itself both in characters and in surrounding objects and occurring phenomena. The place and time of action in such dramatic works, as a rule, is quite difficult to determine. There is no logic in the actions of the characters, nor in their words.

Let us highlight the common features characteristic of the works of the theater of the absurd: material from the site

• fantastic elements coexist with reality;
• "pure" dramatic genres are being replaced by so-called mixed genres that combine different genres: tragicomedy, tragic farce, comic melodrama, etc.;
• elements of different types of art are used (pantomime, choir, musical, etc.);
• in contrast to the dynamism of the action, which is natural for the scene, static is often observed. In the words of E. Ionesco, “the agony in which there is no real action”;
• the speech of the characters undergoes changes, which often simply do not hear and do not see each other, pronounce "parallel" monologues into the void.

The end of the 1960s was marked by the international recognition of the theater of the absurd. One of its founders, Samuel Beckett, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Answering the question " Does the theater of the absurd have a future?”, Eugene Ionesco argued that this trend will live forever, because “the absurdity so filled reality, the very one that is called “realistic reality”, that realities and realisms seem to us as true as absurd, and the absurd seems to be reality: look back around you."

The influence of the theater of the absurd on the development of contemporary art can hardly be overestimated: it brought new themes to world literature, provided dramaturgy with new techniques and means, and contributed to the emancipation of modern theater as a whole.

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Historical prerequisites for the emergence of the drama of the absurd. The concept of "Theatre of the Absurd"

The origin of the absurd genre in Great Britain took place mainly in the second half of the 20th century and had a certain sociocultural and historical context.

Despite the devastating effect of the Second World War, the second half of the 20th century turned into a period of peaceful prosperity. The UK has come face to face with globalization and the needs of a post-industrial society. In this section, we will consider the historical and social prerequisites for the emergence of this genre. play absurd linguistic stoppard

With regard to changes in the social and daily life of people, we can identify the following prerequisites:

• 1) "Consumer Society". Post-war reconstruction brought the economy to full recovery. This was the symbolic beginning of the era of "consumer society". Societies where high wages and a lot of free time have provided a standard of living that the country has not yet known.
• 2) Education. One of the important factors of prosperity was the incredible rise in the level of education among the entire population. Access to higher education provided a greater number of students and, as a result, an increase in the number of specialists with higher education.
• 3) Youth culture . The conservatism inherent in the first half of the 20th century has given way to tolerance towards social, religious and ethnic differences. The emergence of youth culture took place against the background of the denial of strict moral principles by the youth itself, the emergence of freedom of thought and action. People wanted just such a society - consisting of free individuals with independent views, choosing a way of life far from what the masses are used to.
• 4) Immigration flows . The post-war environment prompted the immigration of hundreds of thousands of Irish, Indians and Pakistanis, which played a special role in reconstruction, although it was met with an unprecedented level of hostility from the British. It was necessary to create special laws, one of which was the Race Relations Act (1976), which was of great help in resolving ethnic conflicts. Although certain racial prejudices still exist today, in the second half of the 20th century a great step was taken towards instilling respect and tolerance towards representatives of various ethnic groups. (Brodey & Malgaretti, 2003: 251-253)

In economic terms, social pressure and unemployment reigned everywhere. While prosperity was spreading throughout Europe, a huge number of workers and their families met with a crisis due to job losses. The closure of mines, automobiles and iron and steel works led to unemployment and social unrest in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century.

For example, in 1984, the largest miners' strike in the history of Great Britain took place. Margaret Thatcher met with fierce resistance from workers when she tried to close the coal mines. However, this was only the beginning. The years of Thatcher's rule were marked by many similar cases (strikes of railway workers, representatives of public utilities, etc.)

All of the above factors, of course, could not but affect the cultural aspect of human life. New forms of expressing reality were needed, new ways of conveying to people the philosophy and complexity of life. The answer to this need was the emergence of many modern genres of culture and literature, one of which was the theater of the absurd.

In literature, since 1960 Great Britain has been overwhelmed by a wave of publications of new works. Many of them were written only for quantity, many have survived to this day as examples of quality literature. However, modern literature is difficult to categorize because, despite all the differences between genres and works, they are all designed to reflect the kaleidoscope of modern existence. Postmodern art has spread to many areas of human life, however, one thing is clear - British literature has opened up new horizons for readers of modern life, sometimes expressing it in forms that are not quite familiar to the reader. (Brodey, Malgaretti 2003)

While prose and poetry departed from the new canons of the 20th century, drama studied and used them. Traditional theatrical art described the aspirations and desires of the upper class of British society, excluding any kind of experimentation, both with language and with the production process. However, at the same time, Europe was completely absorbed in the rejection of tradition in favor of novelty and conceptuality, embodying the plays of Eugène Ionesco on stage.

E. Ionesco's plays were called absurd, because the plot and dialogues were very difficult to understand, revealing their illogicality. The absurdists got complete freedom to use the language, playing with it, involving the viewer in the performance itself. There were no unnecessary distractions in the form of scenery, the viewer was completely absorbed in what was happening on the stage. Even the logic of the dialogues was perceived as a factor distracting from understanding the meaning and idea of ​​the play.

The absurd genre appeared in the middle of the 20th century in Western Europe as one of the genres of dramaturgy. The world in plays of this genre is presented as a heap of facts, words, deeds, thoughts, devoid of any meaning.

The term "theater of the absurd" was first used by the famous theater critic Martin Esslin, who saw in certain works the embodiment of the idea of ​​the meaninglessness of life, as such.

This art direction was fiercely criticized, but, nevertheless, gained unprecedented popularity after the Second World War, which only emphasized the uncertainty and instability of human life. In addition, the term itself has also been criticized. There have even been attempts to redefine it as anti-theater.

In practice, the theater of the absurd calls into question the realism of being, people, situations, thoughts, and all the usual classical theatrical techniques. The simplest causal relationships are destroyed, the categories of time and space are blurred. All the illogicality, senselessness and aimlessness of the action are aimed at creating an unreal, maybe even creepy atmosphere.

France became the birthplace of absurdism, although its founders were the Irishman Samuel Beckett and the Romanians Eugene Ionesco, who worked in French, i.e. non-native language. And although Ionesco was bilingual (he spent his childhood in Paris), it was the feeling of a “non-native” language that gave him the opportunity to consider linguistic phenomena from the point of view of the absurd, relying on the lexical structure as the main structure of the architectonics of plays. The same, of course, applies to S. Beckett. A notorious drawback - working in a non-native language - turned into a virtue. Language in absurdist plays acts as an obstacle to communication, people speak and do not hear each other.

Despite the relative youth of this direction, he managed to become quite popular thanks to the logic of illogicality. And absurdism is based on serious philosophical ideas and cultural roots.

First of all, it is worth mentioning the relativistic theory of cognition of the world - a worldview that denies the very possibility of cognizing objective reality.

Also, the formation of absurdism was greatly influenced by existentialism - a subjective-idealistic philosophical trend built on irrationalism, a tragic worldview, the illogicality of the world around it and its insubordination to man.

By the early 1960s, absurdism went beyond the borders of France and began to spread rapidly around the world. However, nowhere else did absurdism appear in its purest form. Most playwrights who can be attributed to this trend are not so radical in the techniques of absurdism. They retain a tragic attitude and the main problematic, displaying the absurdity and inconsistency of situations, often refuse to destroy the plot and plot, lexical experiments, and their characters are specific and individual, the situations are definite, social motives very often appear. Their embodiment is in a realistic reflection of reality, which cannot be the case with the plays of S. Beckett and E. Ionesco.

However, what is important, the absurdist technique in the 1960s received an unexpected development in a new direction of visual art - performance (the original name is happening), the works of which are any actions of the artist that take place in real time. The performance is by no means based on the semantic and ideological categories of absurdism, but uses its formal techniques: the absence of a plot, the use of a cycle of “freely flowing images”, the dismemberment of the structure - lexical, essential, ideological, existential.

Absurd playwrights often used not just absurdity, but reality in its manifestations reduced to absurdity. The method of reducing to the absurd is a method when what they want to deny is taken as the truth. We take a false proposition and make it true with our entire existence according to the method of reduction to the absurd. The paradox arises only as a result of the use of circumstantial evidence. We take a false (incomplete) judgment and make it true in accordance with the method of reduction to the absurd.

Thus, using the method of reduction to a contradiction, the author implements the formula "which is what was required to be proved." Although the reader himself is able to come to this conclusion, here we cannot yet speak of any logical inner form of the work. There is only the point of view of the character, "false", and the author's point of view, "true", - they are in direct opposition. The author makes the hero follow his logic to the end. The logical impasse, to which the writer leads his hero by the method of reduction to absurdity, is obviously included in the author's intention. Therefore, we consider absurd plots as a kind of thought experiments. (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/)

But in other cases, the author does not confine himself to such a simple and formal solution of the problem. The hero continues to insist on his own, he is obsessed with his idea, he does not feel that he has crossed the boundaries of common sense. All this gives the plot of the work an absurd character. Deploying an idea in the direction of absurdity is a process that does not always depend on the will of the author and his intentions. Now the author must move after his hero, whose point of view emerges from a static position and acquires dynamics. The entire artistic world, the entire structure of the work is turned upside down: the very idea, the "false", which, as it were, takes away the author's right to vote and builds reality on its own, becomes the center of the work. The idea organizes the artistic world not according to the laws of common sense, as, let us say, the author would do, but according to its own absurd laws. The author's point of view is blurred. In any case, it does not have a visible predominance in this particular fragment of the text, but how much the author initially disagreed with this "impeccable" idea, how much he now fears it and does not believe in it. And, of course, the hero of the work meets the author where his insensitivity reaches the limit. The hero is frightened either by the consequences of his theories, or by the theory itself, which can sometimes lead very far, come into conflict not only with ethics, but also with common sense itself.

The most popular absurdist play by S. Beckett "Waiting for Godot" is one of the first examples of the Theater of the Absurd, which critics point to. Written and first staged in France in 1954, the play had an extraordinary impact on theatergoers thanks to its new and strange rules. Consisting of a desert setting (except for a virtually leafless tree, clown-like tramps, and highly symbolic language), Godot encourages the audience to question all old rules and try to find meaning in a world that cannot be known. The heart of the play is the theme of "endurance" and "living through the day" so that tomorrow you have the strength to continue. Structurally, Godot is basically a cyclic two-act play. It begins with two lone vagrants waiting on a country road for the arrival of a certain man called Godot, and ends with the starting position. Many critics have concluded that the second act is simply a repetition of the first. In other words, Vladimir and Estragon can forever be "waiting for Godot." We will never know if they found a way out of this situation. As an audience, we can only watch them repeat the same actions, listen to them repeat the same words, and accept the fact that Godot may or may not come. Much like them, we are stuck in a world where our actions determine existence. We may be looking for answers or the meaning of life, but most likely we will not find them. Thus, this play is structured in such a way as to make us believe that Godot may never come, and that we must accept the uncertainty that comes through in our daily lives. The two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, spend their days reliving the past, trying to find the meaning of their existence, and even considering suicide as a form of salvation. However, as characters they are absurd prototypes that remain isolated from the public. They essentially lack personality and their vaudeville mannerisms, especially when it comes to contemplating suicide, make the audience laugh rather than take it tragically. (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/)

For another representative of this genre, E. Ionesco, absurdity is a tool, a way of thinking, the main opportunity to break through the net of indifference, which tightly envelops the consciousness of modern man. The absurd is a look from a completely unexpected point of view and a look that is refreshing. He can shock, surprise, but this is exactly what can be used to break through spiritual blindness and deafness, because this is against the habitual.

The situations, characters and dialogues of his plays follow the images and associations of a dream rather than everyday reality. The language, with the help of amusing paradoxes, clichés, sayings and other word games, is freed from the usual meanings and associations. E. Ionesco's plays originate from street theater, commedia dell "arte, circus clowning. A typical technique is a heap of objects that threaten to devour actors; things take on life, and people turn into inanimate objects. "Ionesco Circus" is a term quite often applied to his early dramaturgy.Meanwhile, he recognized only an indirect connection of his art with surrealism, more readily with Dada.

Achieving the maximum effect of influence, Eugene Ionesco "attacks" the usual logic of thinking, leads the viewer into a state of ecstasy by the absence of the expected development. Here, as if following the precepts of the street theatre, he requires improvisation not only from the actors, but also makes the viewer bewildered to look for the development of what is happening on and off the stage. Problems that were once perceived as another non-figurative experiment are beginning to acquire the qualities of relevance.

Also, this description of the nature and essence of the plays of the absurd genre fully refers to the works of Tom Stoppard and Daniil Kharms.

The term "theater of the absurd" was first used by theater critic Martin Esslin ( Martin Esslin), who wrote a book with that title in 1962. Esslin saw in certain works the artistic embodiment of Albert Camus' philosophy of the meaninglessness of life at its core, which he illustrated in his book The Myth of Sisyphus. It is believed that the theater of the absurd is rooted in the philosophy of Dadaism, poetry from non-existent words and avant-garde art -x. Despite sharp criticism, the genre gained popularity after World War II, which pointed to the significant uncertainty of human life. The introduced term was also criticized, there were attempts to redefine it as "anti-theater" and "new theater". According to Esslin, the absurdist theatrical movement was based on the productions of four playwrights - Eugene Ionesco ( Eugene Ionesco), Samuel Beckett ( Samuel Beckett), Jean Genet ( Jean Genet) and Arthur Adamov ( Arthur Adamov), but he emphasized that each of these authors had their own unique technique that went beyond the term "absurdity". The following group of writers is often distinguished - Tom Stoppard ( Tom Stoppard), Friedrich Dürrenmatt ( Friedrich Dürrenmatt), Fernando Arrabal ( Fernando Arrabal), Harold Pinter ( Harold Pinter), Edward Albee ( Edward Albee) and Jean Tardieu ( Jean Tardieu).

The movement was inspired by Alfred Jarry ( Alfred Jarry), Luigi Pirandello ( Luigi Pirandello), Stanislav Vitkevich ( Stanislaw Witkiewicz), Guillaume Apollinaire ( Guillaume Apollinaire), surrealists and many others.

The "theater of the absurd" (or "new theatre") movement apparently originated in Paris as an avant-garde phenomenon associated with small theaters in the Latin Quarter, and after some time gained worldwide recognition.

In practice, the theater of the absurd denies realistic characters, situations, and all other relevant theatrical devices. Time and place are uncertain and changeable, even the simplest causal relationships are destroyed. Senseless intrigues, repetitive dialogues and aimless chatter, dramatic inconsistency of actions - everything is subordinated to one goal: to create a fabulous, and maybe even terrible, mood.

New York Untitled Theater Company No. 61 (Untitled Theater Company #61) announced the creation of a "modern theater of the absurd", consisting of new productions in this genre and arrangements of classic stories by new directors. Other initiatives include Festival of works by Eugene Ionesco.

“The traditions of the French theater of the absurd in Russian drama exist on a rare worthy example. You can mention Mikhail Volokhov. But the philosophy of the absurd is absent in Russia to this day, so it has to be created.

Theater of the Absurd in Russia

The main ideas of the theater of the absurd were developed by members of the OBERIU group back in the 30s of the XX century, that is, several decades before the appearance of a similar trend in Western European literature. In particular, one of the founders of the Russian theater of the absurd was Alexander Vvedensky, who wrote the plays “Minin and Pozharsky” (1926), “God is possible all around” (1930-1931), “Kupriyanov and Natasha” (1931), “Yolka at the Ivanovs” (1939), etc. In addition, other OBERIUTs worked in a similar genre, for example, Daniil Kharms.

In the dramaturgy of a later period (1980s), elements of the theater of the absurd can be found in the plays of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, in Venedikt Erofeev's play Walpurgis Night, or the Commander's Steps, and a number of other works.

Representatives

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Notes

Literature

• Martin Esslin, The Theater of the Absurd (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1962)
• Martin Esslin, Absurd Drama (Penguin, 1965)
• E.D. Galtsova, Surrealism and theater. To the question of the theatrical aesthetics of French surrealism (Moscow: RGGU, 2012)

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Theatrical art Theatre In 1808, Emperor Alexander went to Erfurt for a new meeting with Emperor Napoleon, and in the highest Petersburg society they talked a lot about the greatness of this solemn meeting. In 1809, the proximity of the two rulers of the world, as Napoleon and Alexander were called, reached such a point that when Napoleon declared war on Austria that year, the Russian corps went abroad to assist their former enemy Bonaparte against their former ally, the Austrian emperor; to the point that in high society they talked about the possibility of a marriage between Napoleon and one of the sisters of Emperor Alexander. But, in addition to external political considerations, at that time the attention of Russian society with particular vivacity was drawn to the internal transformations that were being carried out at that time in all parts of the state administration. Life meanwhile, the real life of people with their essential interests of health, illness, work, recreation, with their own interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions, went on, as always, independently and without political closeness or enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte, and beyond all possible transformations. Prince Andrei lived without a break for two years in the countryside. All those enterprises on estates that Pierre started at home and did not bring to any result, constantly moving from one thing to another, all these enterprises, without showing them to anyone and without noticeable labor, were carried out by Prince Andrei. He had in the highest degree that practical tenacity that Pierre lacked, which, without scope and effort on his part, gave movement to the cause. One of his estates of three hundred souls of peasants was listed as free cultivators (this was one of the first examples in Russia), in others corvée was replaced by dues. In Bogucharovo, a scholarly grandmother was issued to his account to help puerperas, and the priest taught the children of peasants and yards to read and write for a salary. Looking through the performances of some playwrights, for example, Eugene Ionesco, one can come across such a phenomenon in the art world as the theater of the absurd. To understand what contributed to the emergence of this direction, you need to turn to the history of the 50s of the last century. What is the theater of the absurd (drama of the absurd) In the 1950s, productions appeared for the first time, the plot of which seemed absolutely meaningless to the audience. The main play was the alienation of man from the social and physical environment. In addition, during the action on stage, the actors managed to combine incompatible concepts. New plays destroyed all the laws of drama and did not recognize any authorities. Thus, all cultural traditions were challenged. This new theatrical phenomenon, which to some extent denied the existing political and social system, was the theater of the absurd. was first used by theater critic Martin Esslin only in 1962. But some playwrights disagreed with this term. For example, Eugene Ionesco proposed calling the new phenomenon "theater of mockery." History and sources Several French and one Irish authors stood at the origins of the new direction. Eugene Ionesco was able to win the greatest popularity from the audience and Arthur Adamov also made his contribution to the development of the genre. The idea of ​​the theater of the absurd first came to E. Ionesco. The playwright tried to learn English using a self-study textbook. It was then that he drew attention to the fact that many of the dialogues and lines in the textbook are completely incoherent. He saw that in ordinary words there is a lot of absurdity, which often turns even smart ones into completely meaningless ones. However, to say that only a few French playwrights were involved in the emergence of a new direction would not be entirely honest. After all, the existentialists spoke about the absurdity of human existence. For the first time, this theme was fully developed by A. Camus, whose work was also significantly influenced by F. Dostoevsky. However, it was E. Ionesco and S. Beckett who designated and brought to the stage the theater of the absurd. Features of the new theater As already mentioned, the new direction in theatrical art denied classical dramaturgy. Its common characteristics are: Fantastic elements that coexist with reality in the play; The emergence of mixed genres: tragicomedy, comic melodrama, tragic farce - which began to displace the "pure" ones; Use in productions of elements that are typical for other types of art (choir, pantomime, musical); In contrast to the traditional dynamic action on the stage, as it was previously in classical productions, static prevails in the new direction; One of the main changes that characterizes the theater of the absurd is the speech of the characters of the new productions: it seems that they communicate with themselves, because the partners do not listen and do not respond to each other's remarks, but simply utter their monologues into the void. Types of absurdity The fact that the new direction in the theater had several founders at once explains the division of absurdity into types: 1. Nihilistic absurdity. These are the works of the already well-known E. Ionescu and Hildesheimer. Their plays are distinguished by the fact that the audience fails to understand the subtext of the game throughout the entire performance. 2. The second kind of absurdity reflects the universal chaos and, as one of its main parts, man. In this vein, the works of S. Beckett and A. Adamov were created, which sought to emphasize the lack of harmony in human life. 3. Satirical absurdity. As it becomes clear from the name itself, the representatives of this trend Dürrenmatt, Grass, Frisch and Havel tried to ridicule the absurdity of their contemporary social order and human aspirations. Key works of the theater of the absurd What is the theater of the absurd, the audience learned after the premiere of "The Bald Singer" by E. Ionesco and "Waiting for Godot" by S. Beckett took place in Paris. A characteristic feature of the production of "The Bald Singer" is that the one who should have been the main character does not appear on the stage. There are only two married couples on stage, whose actions are absolutely static. Their speech is inconsistent and full of cliches, which further reflects the picture of the absurdity of the world around them. Such incoherent, but absolutely typical remarks are repeated by the characters over and over again. Language, which by its very nature is designed to make communication easy, in the play only gets in the way. In Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, two completely inactive characters are constantly waiting for a certain Godot. Not only does this character never appear throughout the entire action, besides, no one knows him. It is noteworthy that the name of this unknown hero is associated with the English word God, i.e. "God". The heroes remember incoherent fragments from their lives, besides, they are not left with a feeling of fear and uncertainty, because there is simply no way of action that could protect a person. 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