Absurd Drama

by Eugène Ionesco

A collection of plays, often classified as absurd drama, which aim to portray a world in which humanity, with its despair, fear and loneliness, is alone in a hostile and meaningless world.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Eugène Ionesco, born Eugen Ionescu, was a Romanian playwright and dramatist; one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict in a tangible way the solitude and insignificance of human existence.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Jeremy]

My attempt at an honest review:

Popularised by figures such as: Camus, Beckett and Genet, The Theatre of the Absurd rebels against the traditional form and structure of plays. It is within this rebellion that the absurdists present their own existential view of the world; abandoning all signs of objective meaning and linear structure as a means of reflecting that of the human experience. Other aspects are prominent within this literary genre, but the book’s introduction does a much better job at deconstructing these principles better than I ever could.

Most notable of the collection, and the one that first caught my attention, is The Zoo Story. The play consists of only two characters and one location, revolving around a conversation between complete strangers. It is through this bizarre exchange, that Albee displays the difficulty of communication that results in the main characters struggle to form connections.

At least that is my interpretation of the play. It could just be that Albee wanted to explore what a conversation between a mad man and an entirely ordinary person would result in.

He could’ve been more clearer with his intentions for the play.

[David]

Well, it lives up to its title! Seriously, it’s a handy little anthology of absurd plays, and, with the exception of Albee’s “Zoo story,” texts not easily available elsewhere. Adamov’s Professor Taranne may actually be a distant ancestor of Ishiguro’s Mr. Ryder (The Unconsoled). And, as always, I find absurdism hilariously funny although I am constantly aware of some of the very serious challenges that lie at its foundations

[Pádraic]

The bulk of this is taken up with Eugene Ionesco's Amedee or How to Get Rid of It, concerning two elderly people trying to deal with a corpse in their apartment that keeps growing and growing. Reminded me of his Rhinoceros in the sense that you're constantly confused as to how anybody would stage it. It also has something I've never seen before, in that it provides alternate scenes based on how big your budget is. Good fun though, a rollercoaster of escalating strange scenes.

Then we have three short plays. Arthur Adamov's Professor Taranne is a highlight, punchy and strange. Reminded me of Kafka in its sense of, the whole world is against you and your destruction is inevitable. Fernando Arrabal's The Two Executioners feels a bit strained and underbaked compared to the previous two.

The final short play is Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, which I think is just not really very absurdist at all? It's just sort of normal. Probably shouldn't be in the collection. A two-hander, it's very heavily weighted to one of the characters, where I think it'd be better if it was more even-handed. It's probably fine really, but I'm not inclined to give Albee any favours after he wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, my least favourite play ever.

[Asi]

AMÉDÉE or How to Get Rid of it——

No friends, no visitors. Only a lonely couple in a small apartment, living with a corpse for 15 years, or rather a dead beast than human, growing larger everyday until it reaches the size of the whole bedroom and sprouts poisonous mushrooms all over the floor.
The corpse’s identity is not defined during the play, they can’t remember whether it was an old lover, a strange woman or a crying baby that led them to attempt the murder.

The dead body, which is the central motif seems unnatural, and in my opinion represents fear, the main subject the play discusses.
A feeling that lives with us every day, with the desire to get rid of it yet it is difficult to achieve. and the burden of anxiety and panic attacks whenever we sense its nearness which is represented by the mushrooms.

The detachment from the outside world symbolizes the loneliness of confronting your own fears. also, the arguments between Amedee who seems detached and his wife Madeliene who is dying from anxiety and planning how to deal with the situation exemplify the conflicts within a person. The overlap between two ideas, letting go of everything or worrying about it.

In the end, I enjoyed the philosophy of loss expressed through planning to get rid of the gigantic dead body.

[Thomas Sheriff]

Each play is by turns terrifying and funny. I'm no expert, but it seems like a solid place to go to explore absurd drama after the famous Becketts. Ionesco gets top billing but the last play, Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, is the masterpiece here: a convulsively funny, scathing look at humanity and modernity.

[Asser Mattar]

Very interesting. Published in 1965 but still valid.

[Isaiah Ochi]

One of the best works i have ever read. Amedee was very good. professor Taranne was an expressionist work that got me laughing for days.

[smith]

really really liked the first and last ones but i wasnt as bothered about the middle ones, even if i liked bits of them

[Matthew Wright]

Picked this one up from the Charity Shop. Always feels a bit silly rating a compilation but I really appreciated the Introduction and the overall quality and thrust against a backdrop I'm very interested in.

[Absurda.]

I especially liked the dramas of Ionesco because they show the absurdity of an over-controled society in a fascinating kind of way.

[Kathrin]

Dieses Buch war für mich zum Zeitpunkt des Lesens zu bizarr, sodass ich tatsächlich Kopfschmerzen davon bekommen habe. Ich war aber auch nicht mit dem Begriff des Absurden Theaters vertraut.