Absurd Theatre Flashcards
What is Existentialism?
A philosophical movement, emphasising individual existence, freedom and choice.
What are the major ideas of Existentialism?
Moral Individualism
Subjectivity
Commitment and choice
Dread and Anxiety
What are the aims of absurdist plays?
-Show lack of meaning in life to get audiences to disagree.
-Expose the absurdity of life
What are the characteristics of AT?
-Deconstruction of absolute truths and expectations in favour of loss and certainty
Key themes of absurd plays
Mans inability to act
-Characters cannot do anything
- lot of activity no action
-unfulfilled promises of action
Time
-Time moves too quickly hurtling characters towards death
Failure of language
-Words are devoid of meaning
What is the plot of Absurd plays?
-Rejection of a well made play
- Little dramatic tension characters are constantly waiting
-Rejection of the three unities, time, place and action
-Trivial activities used to occupy their time
How does language in absurd plays highlight existential themes?
-Deconstructed sentences
-Pauses are used highlighting the isolation of words or miscommunications.
What is a Non Sequiturs?
One line of conversations does not follow or relate to what was said immediately before
Dynamic of the characters in Absurdist plays
Comic Duos
-Come in pairs
-Funny man and the straight man
-Contrasting nature created humour
Set of a Absurd play
-Sparse, apocalyptic
-Rep alienation man experiences
-Hostile environment against the characters
Moral Individualism
- people believed moral good was same for everyone
- individual must do what is right for them
-finding and creating ones standards.
Subjectivity
-An individuals stance is based on values, morals and personal experiences.
Commitment and choice
- authenticity and owning your choices
Dread and Anxiety
- calling to make a decision
-need to confront the nothingness - recognise feelings of apathy
Who are the existentialist philosophers? and their aims.
Kierkegaard- He stressed the ambiguity and absurdity of the human situation-creating deep meaning for individual and spiritual form.
Nietzsche- God is dead, mankind had lost spirituality and through actions lost humanity, responsibility for one to choose their own moral code.
