Pioneers of The Absurd Theater

  Pioneers of The Absurd Theater  by Sally Atef.

 

 Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) 

''Personally I have no bone to pick with graveyards''.

Samuel Beckett is regarded the most famous of absurd theater's pioneers because of his play "Waiting for Godot "(1953).He is also known as the author of waiting for Godot .He adopted the trend of individual search for identity. In most of his plays we can see the feeling of despair and individual's failure to communicate with the others. He was born in the Good Friday on 13april 1906 in fox rock in country Dublin, Ireland. He belongs to an upper-middle-class Irish Family. He came from a protestant Anglo-Irish background .He was an ordinary boy when he was young but he excelled in school and cricket. At the age of 14he went to the protora Royal school. Between 1923 to 1927 he studied Romance languages at Trinity College, Dublin, where he received his bachelor's degree. He said about it: ''Dublin University contains the cream of Ireland Rich and thick''.

In1928 he became a reader in English at the Ecole Normal Superieure in Paris and met his fellow James Joyce. He stated about him:" James Joice was a synthesizer, trying to bring in as much as he could I am an analyzer, trying to leave out as much as I can." In the following year he wrote his first critical essay "Dante..Bruno.Vico…Joyce"

 When he returned to Ireland in1930 he holds a position as a lecturer in French at Trinity College but he resigned in1931. In1930 he wrote ''whoroscope'' a poem on the French philosopher Rene Descartes. In the following year he puplished''Proust'' a critical schopenhaucrian study of Marcel Proust. In1932 he began his dramatic career by writing" Dream affair to midding women" which was rejected by publisher and wasn't published until 1992.

In 1933 and after his father's death he began two years treatment with Tavistock clinic psychoanalyst Dr Bion and in 1937 he had a brief affair with Peggy Guggenheim. He wrote many short stories and poems. In1937 he decided to settle in Paris.In1938 he was stabbed in the chest and nearly killed.

During the second world war (1939) Beckett joined an underground resistance group in 1941.He went into hiding when he knew that members of his group were arrested .At this time he completed "Watt", novel which wasn't published until 1953.

In 1945 he returned to Ireland. In the winter of 1945 he returned to Paris and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his resistance work. Then he began his creative period. His fame came with the publishing of ''Waiting for Godot'' in (1953).

He wrote plays for stage and radio and a number of prose works. He continued to live in Paris but most of his writing was done in a small house in Marne Alley.

In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He accepted the Prize but didn't travel to Stockholm to avoid the public speech at the ceremonies.Beckett died on 22 December 1989 in Paris.

Arthur Adamov (1908-1970)

“Misery's fine - as long as you know you can get out of it when you want to.” Arthur Adamov.

                                                 

Arthur Adamov was born on 23 August 1908 in Kislovodsk, Russia. His family was rich but it lost its wealth in 1917. In 1912 he left his country and studied in Switzerland, first, and then he moved to Germany.

In 1924 Adamov went to live in Paris, as French was his first language, where he met many Surrealists. During that time he edited The Surrealists Journal Discontinuite and published some poetry but he stopped until 1946 when he wrote his first book L’aveu , an analysis of his psychological and spiritual suffering. Adamov was influenced by Strindburg and he wrote his first play La Parodie (1947) under Strindburg’s influence.

From 1946 to 1955, together with his two contemporaries Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, Adamov developed the new theatre “the absurd theatre”. At this time he wrote L’invasion (1950), La Grand et La Pitite (1950), Le Sense de la Marche (1953), Tous Contre Tous (1953), Le Professeur Taranne (1953) and Le Ping-pong (1955).

After that his writing took a different dimension. He became interested in society and social tendency .This can be observed in his plays Palo Paoli (1957) and Le Printemps 71 (1960) .

In (1968) he published L’Homme et L’Enfant, a collection of news paper articles and memories. He also translated a number of works by German authors as Rike and Buchner and Russian classics by Gogol and Cheknov into French. During his later years he wrote an autobiography entitled The confession (1970) .

Adamov used to drink and use drugs. He died on 15 March 1970 . His death may have been the result of an accidental suicide by taking an overdose of barbuturates.

Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994)

"A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind"

He was born in 26 November 1909 in Slatina, Romania. His father was a lawyer belongs to the Orthodox Christian Church .His mother was French whose faith was protestant but she converted to the orthodox religion.  him self was orthodox until his death.

The family left Romania leaving to Paris where his father completed his studies and became a doctor of the faculty of law. He had a sister born in 1911 and a younger brother who died of meningitis at the age of 18 months.

       When he was four he was interested in puppet shows. In 1916 and during the First World War, his father returned to Romania and the family in Paris had news of him and they thought that he died. The mother and the two children moved to live in hotel de Nivernais in rue Blomet where Eugene's health being fragile. His mother sent him to live with a family in the countryside. He lived with his mother and sister in a small apartment where he wrote his first play of 2 acts and a comic scenario.

In1917, his father remarried and was appointed general inspector. He misused his position and pretended that his wife had settled abroad, divorced her and requested that the children be given to him, so Eugene and his sister returned back to Romania with him in 1922.

After a violent argument with his father, in 1926 he left his father's home moved to his mother's place where his sister. His father wanted him to be an engineer but he was concerned with literature.

In1928 he published''Bilete de papagal".Between 1929 and 1933 he studied for a French degree at the university of Bucharest.In1936 he married Rodica Burileanu and had one daughter for whom he wrote many children's Stories .

At the age of 40 he decided to learn English .from 1937 to 1938 he was in charge of the critical section of the facla review. In 1939 he met Hen Hner Thomas then he went to Marseilles. In the following year when the Second World War was declared he returned to Romania. working as a frencher.Romania`s conditions were so bad so he went back to France in May 1942 with his wife .In France they had financial difficulities.He moved to Paris where he worked as a proofreader for anadministratrative publisher. His first play ''the Bald Donna'' (1948) was not very successful .In 1958 he defended his theatre and his vision.

He received many prizes and honors such as: The medal of Monaco in 1969 and in the same year the Great National Theatre Prize, The Great Austrian prize of European Literature in (1970) On November 27, 1992 the University Of Slakski Katowice Poland gave him. The title of honorary doctor. He was also a member of the C.I.E.L.Eugene  died on March, 28, 1994.

Harold Pinter (1930 – 2008)

“Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living “ Harold   Pinter

                                                                      

Harold Pinter was born October 10, 1930, in London's working-class to an Eastern European Jewish family which had immigrated to the United Kingdom from Portugal. His father, Jack Pinter (1902–1997) was a ladies' tailor; his mother, Frances (1904–1992), was a housewife. Young Harold was traumatized when, at the outbreak of World War II, he was evacuated from London to Cornwall with other London children for a year to avoid becoming casualties of German aerial bombing.

Pinter discovered his social potential as a student at Hackney Downs School, a London grammar school, between 1944 and 1948. A major influence on Pinter was his inspirational English teacher Joseph Brearley, who directed him in school plays and talked with Pinter about literature. At the age of 12, Pinter began writing poetry, and in spring 1947, his poetry was first published in the Hackney Downs School Magazine. In 1950, his poetry was first published outside of the school magazine in Poetry London, some of it under the pseudonym "Harold Pinta “.

Pinter enjoyed running and cricket, he stated:” I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth - certainly greater than sex, although sex isn't too bad either.” Pinter attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for two terms in 1948 but hating the school, and dropped out in 1949. Under the stage name David Baron, he toured the Republic of Ireland with Anew McMaster’s Shakespearean repertory company in 1951-52.

In 1956, Pinter was married to Vivien Merchant, an actress whom he met on tour; their marriage lasted for 24 years. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1958. In 1980 they were divorced. Then in 1980 he was married to Antonia Fraser till his death in 2008.

 Worked as an actor, a director, a playwright. He wrote many important plays using the closed situation that led him to be an important absurdist as The Birthday Party (1957) , The Dumb Waiter (1959) ,  The Caretaker (1960) , The Homecoming (1964) , and No Man’s Land (1975) .

Pinter received the Nobel Prize in literature on 13 October 2005.On 24 December 2008 Pinter died at the age of 78 in London, England.  

Jean Genet (1910 – 1986)

“Repudiating the virtues of your world, criminals hopelessly agree to organize a forbidden universe. They agree to live in it. The air there is nauseating: they can breathe it.” Jean Genet.

Jean Genet was born in Paris on December 19, 1910 in Paris to a young prostitute who raised him for the first year of his life before putting him up for adoption. His foster family was headed by a carpenter .Despite his excellent grades in school, his childhood involved a series of attempts at running away and incidents of petty theft. After the death of his adopted mother, Genet lived with an elderly couple but remained with them less than two years. According to the wife, "he was going out nights and also seemed to be wearing makeup”. At the age of 15 he was sent to Mettray Penal Colony where he was detained between September 2, 1926 and March 1, 1929. Between 1930 and 1940, he wandered through various European countries, living as a thief and male prostitute. In 1937 he was arrested several times.

Genet wrote his first poem "Le condamné à mort," when he was in prison and the novel Our Lady of the Flowers (1944). He rebelled against the tradional form of drama and took advantage of his experiences in prison. By 1949 Genet had completed five novels, three plays and numerous poems but his works were banned I the U.S.A. From the late 1960s, starting with an homage to Daniel Cohn-Bendit after the events of May 1968, Genet became politically active. However, following a number of accidents and Abdullah's suicide in 1964, Genet entered a period of depression, even attempting suicide.

As a political activist, Genet spent six months in Palestinian refugee camps, secretly meeting Yasser Arafat near Amman. . He expresses his solidarity with the Red Army Faction (RAF) of Andreas Baader, 1977. In September 1982 Genet was in Beirut when the massacres took place in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shtila. In response, Genet published "Quatre heures à Chatila" ("Four Hours in Shatila"), an account of his visit to Shatila after the event.

Genet wrote many novels, plays, poems, essays on art, essays on politics and a film script. He wrote Our Lady of the Flowers (1943) Miracle of the Rose (1943-44). Funeral Rites (1944-45). Querelle (1946).    The Maids (1946) the Thief's Journal (1946-48) Deathwatch (1947) The Balcony (1955). The Blacks (1955). The Screens (1955-58). Prisoner of Love (1986)

Genet developed throat cancer and was found dead on April 15, 1986 in a hotel room in Paris. Genet may have fallen on the floor and fatally hit his head. He is buried in the Spanish Cemetery in Larach Morocco.