Editing Theatre of the absurd (section)

==Etymology==
Critic [[Martin Esslin]] coined the term in his 1960 essay "The Theatre of the Absurd", which begins by focusing on the playwrights [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Arthur Adamov]], and [[Eugène Ionesco]]. Esslin says that their plays have a common denominator—the "absurd", a word that Esslin defines with a quotation from Ionesco: "absurd is that which has no purpose, or goal, or objective."<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1124873 | jstor=1124873 | title=The Theatre of the Absurd | last1=Esslin | first1=Martin | journal=The Tulane Drama Review | date=1960 | volume=4 | issue=4 | pages=3–15 | doi=10.2307/1124873 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Theatre of the Absurd |first=Martin |last=Esslin |year=1961 |oclc=329986 }}</ref> The French philosopher [[Albert Camus]], in his 1942 work ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]'', describes the human situation as meaningless and absurd.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm |title=THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: THE WEST AND THE EAST |first=Jan |last=Culík |date=2000 |publisher=University of Glasgow |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823075755/http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm |archive-date=2009-08-23 }}</ref>

The absurd in these plays takes the form of man's reaction to a world apparently without meaning, or man as a puppet controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces. This style of writing was first popularized by the Eugène Ionesco play ''[[The Bald Soprano]]'' (1950). Although the term is applied to a wide range of plays, some characteristics coincide in many of the plays: broad comedy, often similar to [[vaudeville]], mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of [[Theatrical realism|realism]] and the concept of the "[[well-made play]]".

In his introduction to the book ''Absurd Drama'' (1965), Esslin wrote:<blockquote>The Theatre of the Absurd attacks the comfortable certainties of religious or political orthodoxy. It aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation as these writers see it. But the challenge behind this message is anything but one of despair. It is a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly; precisely {{em|because}} there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately man is alone in a meaningless world. The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation.<ref>{{cite book|contributor-last=Esslin|contributor-first=Martin|year=1965|contribution=Introduction|title=Absurd Drama|last1=Ionesco|first1=Eugene|last2=Adamov|first2=Arthur|last3=Arrabal|first3=Fernando|last4=Albee|first4=Edward|location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin Book Ltd.|page=23|oclc=748978381}}</ref></blockquote>