11/24/2016
Directing the Absurd
How do you direct something with no plot, nonsense dialogue and uninformative characters? Here are a few things to think about as you prepare.
1. What main image does the play represent to you?
Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros shows a time and place where all citizens turn into rhinoceros around the main character. Can he resist the compulsion to conform? When Ionesco wrote the play one of the things he was concerned about was the number of people around him who were converting to Fascism. On the other hand, it has also been suggested that the image deals with the main character resisting the conformity of old age.
It's important to direct with an image in mind. When there isn't a story to tell, there must be something on which everyone (cast and audience) can focus upon.
2. Resist the temptation to pile on a visual meaning to the play because it's not immediately available in the text.
Samuel Beckett was, and his estate is, fanatical about bizarre productions of Waiting For Godot . Many directors have, because the play is so sparse in its action, tried to force ameaning on it by putting the play in a funky location or by changing the gender of the characters and so on. It's harder to find the meaning of these plays because the characters don't tell you right out and it's easy to want to put a shell on the play so that audience can "see" the meaning of the play.
You also want to resist the urge to have actors mug to the audience. It is easy to fall into the trap of trying to pull the audience into the experience with a look of "Can you believe what I'm saying?" That creates a false connection between audience and text.
Theatre of the Absurd plays require a lot more work from the actors, the director and the audience. Just because meaning isn't on the surface doesn't mean it's not there. For example, on the surface it seems there is little meaning to Waiting For Godot because nothing apparent happens. But how many people live lives where "nothing" happens? It's a pretty common phenomenon. How does that reflect the action of the play? And further, what if you look at the play from the perspective of two people who are "torn between the pointless of their lives and the seemingly inexhaustible instinct to keep going?" ( p. 47, David Pickering (ed), Dictionary of Theatre, 1988, Sphere Reference ) How many modern day businessmen and women does this apply to today?
3. Communicate with your actors.
Don't let them flounder about on their own with this. Ensure that everyone is on the same page with the image you have in your mind for the play. Decide as a group on the backgrounds for the characters, decide on what is going on in the relationships: just because the information isn't in the text doesn't mean the actors should forget this part of the process. In The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco characters descend into complete gibberish. If the actors let the words just blather out of their mouths without a sense of background it will be meaningless. And everything has meaning in an Absurd play (even if it is that life has no meaning!)
As stated above, these plays include an extra layer of work. It's not just a little blocking and a little character development. But with that work comes the potential of giving an audience an experience they will never forget.
For more information, visit: https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/theatre-of-the-absurd
