'The Theatre of the Absurd' is a term coined for a number of plays, mostly written in the 1950s and 1960s, by such playwrites as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter. It is derived from an essay by the French philosopher Albert Camus. In his 'Myth of Sisyphus', written in 1942, he defined the human condition as basically meaningless and absurd, and that man is inhabiting a universe with which he is out of sync. The Theatre of the Absurd was undoubtedly influenced by the horrors of the Second World War, which showed the total impermanence of any values and highlighted the precariousness of human life and its fundamental meaninglessness and arbitrariness. The trauma of living from 1945 under the threat of nuclear annihilation also seems to have been an important factor in the rise of the new theatre.

As a result, absurd plays assumed a highly unusual, innovative form, directly aiming to startle the viewer, shaking him out of this comfortable, conventional life of everyday concerns. The Theatre of the Absurd openly rebelled against conventional theatre. Indeed, it was anti-theatre. It was surreal, illogical, conflictless and plotless. The dialogue seemed total gobbledygook. Not unexpectedly, the Theatre of the Absurd met with incomprehension and rejection. Absurd drama subverts logic. It relishes the unexpected and the logically impossible. According to Sigmund Freud, there is a feeling of freedom we can enjoy when we are able to abandon the straitjacket of logic.

Tomorrow I will not be in class. Your assignment will revolve on your ability to let go of convention, to let your hair down, to be absurd (let’s just call it “silly”) and yet to still make an impression on the reader. You’ll be writing stories of the absurd that will still have to follow (sorry) conventional rules of grammar and structure, but in terms of the story itself, be as creative and non-conforming as possible. See you on Wednesday.