Absurd, Theatre of the

Absurd, Theatre of the, name given by Martin Esslin, in a book of that title published in 1962, to the plays of a group of dramatists, among them Beckett and Ionesco and, in England, Pinter, whose work has in common the basic belief that man's life is essentially without meaning or purpose and that human beings cannot communicate. This led to the abandonment of dramatic form and coherent dialogue, the futility of existence being conveyed by illogical and meaningless speeches and ultimately by complete silence. The first, and perhaps most characteristic, play in this style was Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1952), the most extreme—since it has no dialogue at all—his Breath (1969). The movement, which now seems to have passed its zenith, nevertheless made a profound and lasting impression on the theatre everywhere.

The English dramatist N(orman) F(rederick) Simpson (1919– ) is considered by some to write in this vein; his best-known play, One-Way Pendulum (1959), features an attempt to teach 500 weighing machines to sing the Hallelujah Chorus.