Samuel Beckett (1906-89) Irish avant-garde novelist…For him, the world wobbles on its axis, and the people who inhabit it do not always think logically or talk sensibly. The structure of a typical absurdist drama is like a spaceship orbiting earth or a Ferris wheel revolving on an axle…

WAITING FOR GODOT En Attendant Godot : Jan 5, 1953 in Theatre de Babylone in Paris, eng version debuted in August, 1955A Tragicomedy In two acts…Part tragedy part comedy. Its barrenness situates the tragedy. The construct makes possible the comedy. Martin Eslin: coined the term Theatre of absurd.A group of dramatists in 1940s Paris believed life is without apparent meaning or purpose; it is, in short, absurd as French playwright and novelist Albert Camus (1913-60) wrote in a 1942 Essay, The myth of Sisyphus (Sinner condemned in Tartarus to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill then watching it roll back down again) paradoxically, the only certainty in life is uncertainty, the absurdist believed. As absurdist dramas in which a play depicts life as meaningless, senseless, and uncertain…a story generally ends up where it started; nothing has been accomplished and nothing gained. The characters may be uncertain of time and place, and they are virtually the same at the end of the play as they were at the beginning. Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin..This is not a play about waiting, in itself waiting...We are all born mad. Some remain so. (E)..Nothing to be done. ..I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying, Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle." Vladimir…What do we do, now that we are happy? Wait for Godot," (Vladimir)…there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express. (Samuel)

…We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression that we exist? (E)Vladimir: Yes, yes, we ‘re magicians.” …There is no lack of void. (E)…Pozzo: I am blind…(silence)Estragon: Perhaps he can see in the future.

Edward Bond (1934) English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist…A story within a story is a literary device in which one character within a narrative himself narrates. It is difficult to call the sea only a tragedy or a comedy but we can balance the view of two extremes with a renowned critic, David Herd who guess; “The Sea is tightly knit, well organized and light humored black comedy, not even a tragicomedy.” ..The play is also an attempt to show supremacy of art over life and it also reveals some of the absurdities of social and religious people; but it is based on illusions and the world inhabited by Hatch and presented in the play from Mrs. Rafi’s point is illusionary. ..The illusionary world of both Hatch and Mrs. Rafi’s Orpheus is the result of paranoia.

THE SEA 1973Rf: Shakespeare's The TempestThe play is set in 1907 in an East Anglian seaside community and begins with a tempestuous storm. A well known and loved member of the community dies at sea, and the play explores the reactions of the villagers and the attempts by two young lovers to break away from the constraints of the hierarchical, and sometimes insane, society. At the same time, the draper of the city gets mad while struggling with the town's "First Lady" and believing that aliens from another planet have arrived to invade the city, personified through the best friend of the drowned man.Bond has made use of sea in his play as Virginia Woolf has done in her novel “To the Light House.”…this terrible sea, this terrible life. (Mrs Tilehouse)…in this town you cannot get away from sea. (Manfanwy)…they practice all day and night! …One can’t play lutes to the sound of the guns (Mrs Rafi)

..this is not your sort of sea. This is real se where you drown. It’s not governed by your fancy, twisted laws of gravity.” H…a mix of tragedy and politics, one critic describes it as “equally influenced by The tempest, The importance of the being earnest, and Invasion of the body snatcher.”…their brains are taken out at night, bit by bit and placed by artificial material brought here in airships. H…I’ll take my shears to that little swine. I’ll snipe him. H…A fire that doesn’t die out. R…I believe in the rat because he has the seeds of the rat-catcher in him. I believe in the rat catcher...I drink to keep sane. There’s no harm in the little I drink.…I am an emphatic lady. …the town is full of her cripples. They are the one she is nicest to.…the town is full of her victims.…Kill it! kill it! kill it!

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian, physician, dramaturge …practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."

CHERRY ORCHARD 1904(Vishnevyi sad in Russian)His work presents a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text.”..Chekhov intended it as a comedy, and it does contain some elements of farce, Stanislavski insisted on directing the play as a tragedy. Since this initial production, directors have had to contend with the dual nature of the play.The play concerns an aristocratic Russian woman and her family as they return to their family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. While presented with options to save the estate, the family essentially does nothing and the play ends with the sale of the estate to the son of a former serf; the family leaves to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down.In reflecting the socio-economic forces at work in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, including the rise of the middle

class after the abolition of serfdom in the mid-19th century and the sinking of the aristocracy, the play reflects forces at work around the globe in that period.

Henrik Ibsen (1828 –1906) Norwegian…Often referred to as "the father of realism""My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than her husband's wife." Hedda is as indifferent to our analysis as she is to Tesman’s excitement over his slippers when she says, “I really don’t care about it.”…underneath the ennui and indifference lies a character rich for psychological investigation. ..Freudian Phallic Symbol (guns)

HEDDA GABLER (1890)It premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama.Depending on the interpretation, Hedda may be portrayed as an idealistic heroine fighting society, a victim of circumstance, a prototypical feminist, or a manipulative villain.…My impulsiveness had its consequences Act II …Oh courage… oh yes! If only one had that… Then life might be livable, in spite of everything.…Yes, I am. For once in my life I want to have the power to shape a man’s destiny.”…with wine leaves in his hair.…Do it beautifully/make it beautiful… as a memento…I am burning your child, Thea! You with your beautiful wavy hair! The child Loevborg gave you. I’m burning it! I’m burning your child! (III)..It’s a liberation [for me] to know that an act of spontaneous courage is yet possible in this world. An act that has something of unconditional beauty. IV…Everything I touch seems destined to turn into something mean and farcical.…In your power, all the same. Subject to your will and demands! No longer free!…I shall be silent in the future.…Hedda's modus operandi…I have talent for one thing only..boring myself to death!