Literature Glossary

Theater Of The Absurd

Definition:

We're willing to bet you've been grounded a time or two. Or ten. Maybe you've even had your car keys confiscated by mom or dad for a weekend. But we're pretty sure you've never been sentenced to roll a giant rock up a mountain, only to watch it tumble back to the bottom again, for all of eternity. That's what happened to Sisyphus, one of Greek mythology's least enviable dudes.

So why are we telling you all of this? Because poor ol' Sisyphus is at the heart of the Theater of the Absurd, a drama movement whose devotees believed that human beings' thirst for truth and the meaning of life was, well, downright absurd. It was as pointless as Sisyphus pushing that stone up the mountain over and over and over again.

Philosopher Albert Camus first introduced the idea of the Absurd in his 1942 essay "The Myth of Sisyphus," and within a few short years the movement was born. It was all the rage in Europe after World War II shook everybody up, and it hung around until 1989 when Samuel Beckett, one of the Theater of the Absurd's major players, passed away at the age of 83.

So how do you tell if a play is part of the Theater of the Absurd movement?

In a word? Shenanigans.

In a few more words and phrases, keep an eye out for repetitive dialogue, nonsense language, and clichés; mysteries that never get solved; a cloudy sense of time, place, or plot; characters asking huge philosophical questions; and a general sense of chaos.

Ready to start rolling some rockin' plays up your brain hill? Start with these:

• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
• The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard