Elements of Absurdest Theatre have been around as long as theater has been around. But its start tends to be contributed to after World War II, with Absurdest authors like Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee, and many others.
Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994)is a French/Romanian writer who studied in both France and Romania, but loved his mother's home land of France. He wrote his first play when he was 37, The Bald Soprano. He used the character Berenger in many of his plays as a semi-autobiographical character. Eugene lonesco once admitted that he was a playwright of despair—otherwise, he said, "why do you think I have to be so funny?"
--an introduction to the plot and its characters
The play takes place in the throne room of Berenger the I, who is the King of an undisclosed time and Kingdom where he has ruled for the past 400 years. His meager court is as faded as the rest of the Kingdom: all that's left is the maid Juliette, who takes care of the castle by herself, the Guard, who announces the progression of the king, the Doctor, who is also the astrologist and executioner, and his two rival queens, Marguerite, his first wife and Marie, his second and younger wife.
As we are informed, the King must die by the end of the play. The play itself is simply a matter of getting there, Reminiscent of the medieval morality play Everyman, Berenger dose not accept it, but as he and his kingdom wither and melt into oblivion he slowly starts to accepts the inevitability of death that come to us all.
--a brief production history with excerpts from reviews
1)Belvoir St Theatre, Melbourne, Australia
June '07 - July '07
Direction: Neil Armfield
Staring:Geoffrey Rush
"....Rush is the brilliant centre of a sparkling ensemble: after a slightly sticky twenty minutes or so at the beginning of the play, his performance is as remarkable as any I've seen. Rush is a great clown, and this role gives him plenty of scope for physical humour, especially in a scene in which (as the Guard announces) "The King is Marching!" But his skill is evident in his restraint; he never allows grotesquerie to degenerate into mere cartooning. Like Ionesco's writing, he keeps his options open: anything is possible at any time. He plays the full range of the text, from broad comedy to brutality to sheer pathos, until he becomes the everyking we all are, alone and afraid in our shabby kingdoms, facing the dark...." Theatre Notes Blog
--Preparatory classroom exercise (something to do and discuss) before the class attends the performance
Have your students explore Theatre of the Absurd, by reading other plays written by Absurdest authors like Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee, and then discuss how the author successfully or not makes a modern day fairy tale to make some point of man's existents. Then have them play with making their own Absurd Theatre. Are they able to work with and under stand the underlying satirical language and nature of Absurd.
Q&A with the director and production team following the performance.
1)Why did you chose to do this play?
2)How do you think this production enhances the authors intentions?
3)what would you say to someone who dose not fell like they get absurd theatre.
