Theatre HL Theatre Arts Research Investigation Essay

Exploration Question: Which methods may a theater company use while performing Jean Anouilh’s ‘Antigone’, keeping true to and supporting the perception of the Theatre of the Absurd? Movie theater of the Silly is a term that was coined by Hungarian-born theatre critic Martin Esslin, who managed to get the title of his 62 book on the subject.

It is identifies a particular style of theatre and the work of your number of generally European playwrights, mostly crafted in the 1950s and 1960s. These plays are typical related throughout the theme of the Absurd, initially presented in this manner by the People from france philosopher Albert Camus in his 1942 essay, “The Misconception of Sisyphus” in which this individual deals with the meaninglessness and absurdity in the human existence and claims the belief that life has no purpose. Subsequently he poses problem if the conclusion and popularity of this truth must always result in suicide.

You can see a definite reflection of this thought in Esslin’s definition of the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ as what “strives expressing its impression of the senselessness of the human condition as well as the inadequacy in the rational way by the wide open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought. ” The most well-know absurdist playwrights are Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Blue jean Genet, Harold Pinter and Arthur Adamov. It is believed that the violent uprising of this philosophical movement throughout this specific time frame was induced by the loss of life, grief and pure agony brought upon the people simply by World War II, which in turn demonstrated the total brevity of any ideals and emphasized the precariousness and arbitrariness of human life.

The population of Europe had been suffering from terror, food cravings and disease on these kinds of a traumatizing level of the trench warfare and the holocaust, that they shed all desire in mankind and faith in their god. That’s why this viewpoint of meaninglessness developed because people failed to find any explanation in life any more. The psychic trauma of living within the threat of nuclear abolition has probably also had a great influence on the development of this new form of theatre. Although World War II is thought to have been the catalyst to get his movements there are a number of predecessors which can be thought to possess contributed to its development.

Theater of the Ludicrous is considered to have originated from the ancient Greece between 550 and 220 BCE from the thing that was know as ‘Old Comedy’, particularly from playwrights such as Aristophanes. In ‘Old Comedy’ there was a satirical treatment of domestic conditions and misconceptions on contemporary society, politics, literary works and the Peloponnesian War that was going on between Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian little league, led by simply sparta.

The Absurdist takes on share several most important features: extensive funny, mixed with horrific or tragic images; non-traditional dialogue filled with clichés, wordplay, and non-sense; characters caught in unattainable and illogical situations forced to do repetitive or worthless actions; plots that are cyclical or ridiculously expansive and either a parody or dismissal of realism, in make an effort to reflect the absurdity of human lifestyle. The aim of silly plays is usually to startle, confound and impact the viewers, waking him up coming from his monotonous and regular life every day concerns. The Theatre of the Ludicrous was a thing completely new and rebellious for the viewers and was indeed, like a few of the playwrights liked to call it, ‘ anti-theatre’.

It was unique, illogical, conflictless and plotless. The discussion was total baloney and seemingly with out meaning. Not surprisingly, it was first received with disapproval and lack of understanding.

Jean Anouilh’s play ‘Antigone’, originally manufactured in Paris in 1942, is actually a tragedy inspired by and adapted from your ancient greek traditional ‘Antigone’ by simply Sophocles that was first performed in Athens in the fifth century B. C. The changes he made towards the plot, may seem slight occasionally, but build a very different function and theatrical experience with a brand new taste of political and moral criticism. The main big difference is that in Anouilh’s version, from the beginning, a member with the chorus measures forward to carry out the prologue, ‘introducing’ the group to the storyline and the character types of the perform.

Anouilh’s refrain has a different purpose although than Sophocles’ had which is of vital significance pertaining to the play, ceating a detachment from your play at times in order to talk about the audience directly. At 1 point he indicates the difference between drama and misfortune, suggesting that Antigone participate in the latter, and therefore her fortune is clear and unavoidable. Walter Ince, demands the following philosophical question with an silly feeling, responding to Anouilh’s tragedy: “If life evokes these kinds of complete pessimism, where is a tragedy in leaving this? “. When performing this enjoy while applying absurdist theatre methods, we want to retain this a sense of hopelessness with your life and illustrate the deformity of lifestyle.

Anouilh has already created a moderate absurd sense making things easier previously. His complex distancing with the plot and constant reminder to the viewers of the fact that they can be merely viewing actors in a play seems to me incredibly absurd and “anti-theatrical”. I actually imagine this may confuse the viewer and alienate, probably even annoy and annoy the viewers, as it absolutely did inside the time of the first performance.

Additionally , applying a few of the standard absurdist techniques just like having the heroes repeat worthless actions or perhaps make the conditions seem unattainable absurd. Specifically aspects from the play that already seem slightly ludicrous should be advertised, such as Full Eurydice knitting until your woman goes to her room and dies or the three protects that perform cards, completely oblivious to the tragedy signing up before them.

In that point, the director would need to decide if this individual wants to stay true to Anouilh’s original textual content or in the event that he really wants to change the dialogues, in which case one could take the that means out of conversations or perhaps insert non-sensical sentences, make the characters discuss past the other person, without entirely losing the plot. The stage setting could be possibly overly surrealistic, further contributing to the audiences confusion or perhaps completely basic going so far as not having a setting in any way, further emphasizing the anti-theatrical aspects and adding to the alienation in the viewer. Options: Carlson, Marvin. 1993. Hypotheses of the Cinema: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present.

Expanded impotence. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press Ince, Walt. 1968. Community forum for Modern day Language Research: ‘Prologue and Chorus in Anouilh’s Antigone’ IV, pp.

277 – 84 Freeman, Ted. 2150. Antigone: Commentary, Anouilh’s Antigone. Methuen Theatre Student Release, London, Methuen Publishing