Editing Existentialism (section)

==== Theatre ====
Sartre wrote ''[[No Exit]]'' in 1944, an existentialist [[play (theatre)|play]] originally published in French as ''Huis Clos'' (meaning ''[[wikt:in camera|In Camera]]'' or "behind closed doors"), which is the source of the popular quote, "Hell is other people." (In French, "L'enfer, c'est les autres"). The play begins with a Valet leading a man into a room that the audience soon realizes is in hell. Eventually he is joined by two women. After their entry, the Valet leaves and the door is shut and locked. All three expect to be tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead, they realize they are there to torture each other, which they do effectively by probing each other's sins, desires, and unpleasant memories.

Existentialist themes are displayed in the [[Theatre of the Absurd]], notably in [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', in which two men divert themselves while they wait expectantly for someone (or something) named Godot who never arrives. They claim Godot is an acquaintance, but in fact, hardly know him, admitting they would not recognize him if they saw him. Samuel Beckett, once asked who or what Godot is, replied, "If I knew, I would have said so in the play." To occupy themselves, the men eat, sleep, talk, argue, sing, play games, [[Physical exercise|exercise]], swap hats, and contemplate [[suicide]]—anything "to hold the terrible silence at bay".<ref>''The Times'', 31 December 1964. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 57</ref> The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and [[pathos]]."<ref>Cronin, A., ''Samuel Beckett The Last Modernist'' (London: Flamingo, 1997), p. 391</ref> The play also illustrates an attitude toward human experience on earth: the poignancy, oppression, camaraderie, hope, corruption, and bewilderment of human experience that can be reconciled only in the mind and art of the absurdist. The play examines questions such as death, the [[Meaning of life (philosophy)#Existentialism|meaning of human existence]] and the place of God in human existence.

[[Tom Stoppard]]'s ''[[Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead]]'' is an [[Theatre of the Absurd|absurdist]] [[tragicomedy]] first staged at the [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe]] in 1966.<ref name="Chrono">{{cite web | author= Michael H. Hutchins | title=A Tom Stoppard Bibliography: Chronology | work=The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide | url=http://www.sondheimguide.com/Stoppard/chronology.html | date=14 August 2006 | access-date=2008-06-23}}</ref> The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[Hamlet]]''. Comparisons have also been drawn to [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', for the presence of two central characters who appear almost as two halves of a single character. Many plot features are similar as well: the characters pass time by playing [[Questions (game)|Questions]], impersonating other characters, and interrupting each other or remaining silent for long periods of time. The two characters are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world beyond their understanding. They stumble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the implications, and muse on the irrationality and randomness of the world.

[[Jean Anouilh]]'s ''[[Antigone (Anouilh play)|Antigone]]'' also presents arguments founded on existentialist ideas.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wren|first=Celia |date= 12 December 2007 |title= From Forum, an Earnest and Painstaking 'Antigone' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121102254.html |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=2008-04-07}}</ref> It is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name (''Antigone'', by Sophocles) from the fifth century BC. In English, it is often distinguished from its antecedent by being pronounced in its original French form, approximately "Ante-GŌN." The play was first performed in Paris on 6 February 1944, during the Nazi occupation of France. Produced under Nazi censorship, the play is purposefully ambiguous with regards to the rejection of authority (represented by Antigone) and the acceptance of it (represented by Creon). The parallels to the French Resistance and the Nazi occupation have been drawn. Antigone rejects life as desperately meaningless but without affirmatively choosing a noble death. The crux of the play is the lengthy dialogue concerning the nature of power, fate, and choice, during which Antigone says that she is, "...&nbsp;disgusted with [the]...promise of a humdrum happiness." She states that she would rather die than live a mediocre existence.

Critic [[Martin Esslin]] in his book ''Theatre of the Absurd'' pointed out how many contemporary playwrights such as [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Eugène Ionesco]], [[Jean Genet]], and [[Arthur Adamov]] wove into their plays the existentialist belief that we are absurd beings loose in a universe empty of real meaning. Esslin noted that many of these playwrights demonstrated the philosophy better than did the plays by Sartre and Camus. Though most of such playwrights, subsequently labeled "Absurdist" (based on Esslin's book), denied affiliations with existentialism and were often staunchly anti-philosophical (for example Ionesco often claimed he identified more with [['Pataphysics]] or with [[Surrealism]] than with existentialism), the playwrights are often linked to existentialism based on Esslin's observation.<ref>Kernan, Alvin B. ''The Modern American Theater: A Collection of Critical Essays''. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: [[Prentice-Hall]], 1967.</ref>