Theatre Of The Absurd Waiting For Godot And Zoo Story
Submitted by luthifer on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: American History
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Theatre Of The Absurd Waiting For Godot And Zoo Story
Absurd Theatre has stylistic features that differ greatly from other theatre genres
such as realism and naturalism. Two such plays that provide evidence of such stylistic
features are "Waiting For Godot", by Samuel Beckett, and "Zoo Story", by Edward Albee.
One of the main stylistic features of "Waiting For Godot" is the structure reflecting
theme. This is where the second act basically reflects or mirrors the first. The situation that
the characters are in at the beginning of the act, where they are wating for this mysterious
'Godot', remains through the entire play and is the situation at the end. There is no
advancement of the storyline.
This is basically the same as in "Zoo Story". The scene given is a man (Peter) sitting
on a park bench in central park. Alond comes Jerry who strikes up a conversation with Peter.
This is the whole play. Jerry tells Peter that he has been to the zoo, but every time he gets
sidetracked and go off on a different tangent, but then returns to the same idea.
Repetition is used quite frequently throughout "Waiting For Godot". Some examples
of this technique used by Beckett include the passing of the hats between Estragon and
Vladimir, and also Vladimir's song at the beginning of act two. Also some of the dialogue
during the play repeats ideas that have been raised, for example, Vladimir and Estragon
raise the question many times during "Godot", why they are waiting and who they are waiting
for.
In "Zoo Story" the same idea of repeated ideas is evident. Jerry continually brings up
the idea that he has been to the zoo.
The Stage design is similar in both plays. They both are very simple. In "Waiting For
...
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