Which methods could a theatre company use when performing Jean Anouilh's "Antigone", keeping true to and supporting the style of the "Theatre of the Absurd"?

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Theatre HL                         Theatre Arts Research Investigation                   Sophie Karbjinski David Vaux                                                                                                                          23. April, 2012

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Research Question: Which methods could a theatre company use while performing Jean Anouilh's 'Antigone', keeping true to and supporting the style of the Theatre of the Absurd?

        Theatre of the Absurd is a term that was coined by Hungarian-born theatre critic Martin Esslin, who made it the title of his 1962 book on the subject. It is refers to a particular style of theatre and the work of a number of mainly European playwrights, mostly written in the 1950s and 1960s. These plays are all related through the theme of the Absurd, first presented in this way by the French philosopher Albert Camus in his 1942 essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus” in which he deals with the meaninglessness and absurdity of the human existence and states the belief that life has no purpose. Subsequently he poses the question if the realization and acceptance of this fact must necessarily result in suicide. You can see a clear reflection of this thought in Esslin's definition of the 'Theatre of the Absurd' as that which “strives to express its sense of the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought.” The most well-know absurdist playwrights are Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter and Arthur Adamov.

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        It is believed that the uprising of this philosophical movement during this specific time period was triggered by the death, grief and pure misery brought upon the people by World War II, which demonstrated the total brevity of any values and emphasized the precariousness and arbitrariness of human life. The population of Europe had been experiencing terror, hunger and disease on such a traumatizing level of the trench warfare and the holocaust, that they lost all hope in humanity and faith in their god. That's why this philosophy of meaninglessness developed because people failed ...

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