The Bald Soprano

Eugene Ionesco is another of the Theatre of the Absurd's iconic playwrights. His play, The Bald Soprano exemplifies various key characteristics of the genre.

The banality of the dialogue and the concerns of the characters points to a general theme of the meaningless existence of man, while the generalized and moronic nature of the characters and situations provide the absurd element - which also points to this theme of meaningless existence.

The characters are largely one-dimensional, standing in for everyone else in humanity and asserting that any one of us is as meaningless as the next fellow. It is important to note, also, that the characters exist largely in a vague setting.

In general, the play disregards traditional dramatic story telling, alienating itself from the Realism of its predecessors. This creation of a dreamlike or incomplete reality brings up central philosophical questions of existence and meaning - what is our environment? Is what we see really what exists? Are we alive/real, or are we part of some dream world? Does it matter?

Speaking of Sisyphus...

In my Black Comedy blog in an entry about Living in Oblivion, I related the struggles of the film's characters to those of Sisyphus, doomed to roll a bolder up a hill for eternity. In my Absurdist Theatre research, I came across some information about Camus and how he applied this myth to humanity and created the basis for the theatre of the absurd.

In the beginning of absurdist theatre, there was Albert Camus.  In his seminal essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus," (which can be viewed here) Camus asserts the utter pointlessness of man's existence - an assertion that virtually spawned the genre.

In the examples I've listed below, (Waiting for Godot, The Sandbox and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) is a pervading attitude of man's relative lack of purpose and his attempts to apply a purpose of his own making to himself. Camus proclaims that "there is no higher destiny," and that "one always finds one's burden again."

In light of these findings, I would argue that the film Living in Oblivion serves as an example of precisely the hybrid that I am attempting to produce. Though it uses characteristic elements of black comedy through its creation of humor from misery, its basis is in the theatre of the absurd. Steve Busciemi's character IS the absurd hero, Sisyphus, constantly returning to his boulder.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

An important idea in absurdist theatre is that of the tragicomedy. The tragicomedy, of which Waiting for Godot is one, is a concept inspired by the work of William Shakespeare according to Martin Esslin, author of Absurd Drama. The most clear representation of this relationship is Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. 

This play, among many other potential themes, deals with the question of existence and whether it continues after death. To do this, like many absurdist dramas, the play contains a limited setting that functions fluidly between the living world and the afterlife without ever defining itself as one or the other. The characters, like in Godot and The Sandbox exist in sort of non-setting that isolates them, and in putting their humanity under a microscope, generalizes and distorts their defining characteristics in pursuit of the greater questions of the play.