Director's Note
In his 1961 book The
Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin
described a trend exemplified by the works of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco,
and Harold Pinter. These plays flouted realist theatrical conventions, focusing
instead on characters who were waiting for something to happen, or realizing
the inadequacy of language for conveying ideas and emotions. Absurdism revels
in nonsense and circular logic; more accessible examples might include Joseph
Heller’s novel Catch-22 or Abbot and
Costello’s “Who’s on First?” sketch. Absurdist theatre also plays with power
dynamics, malfunctioning technology, and minimalism. In envisioning a “Carnival
of the Absurd,” I wanted to celebrate the optimistic side of Existentialist
philosophy. In search of an absurdist hero, Albert Camus claimed Sisyphus,
doomed to roll a rock uphill for all eternity, only to watch it roll down again
each time he reached the summit. Thinking of Sisyphus walking back down the
hill to start again, Camus encourages us to “imagine Sisyphus happy.” Every
moment of failure is an opportunity to begin again. As Beckett said, “Try
again. Fail again. Fail better.”
With Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, and Pinter as our guides,
students new to the Department of Theatre have created this collection of
twenty-four short absurdist plays and performances. You will see ruminations on
time, health, language, logic, and politics. You will see experiments with
form, including an absurdist opera interlude and absurdist tap dance. Early on,
the students gravitated toward an idea of “breaking the cycle” rather than
simply observing cyclical structures of absurdism. While many of these short
pieces focus on loneliness and isolation, they are united in expressing a
desire for human connection.
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