Reading up on the Theatre of The Absurd in the past few days has made me even more confused about it all.
Here's the low down. TSD papers are the written component which makes up about sixty or seventy percent of the total score for the subject. TSD papers consist mainly of Section A and Section B. Section A is a really long unseen text, usually lasting four to five pages. Questions will be asked about the staging of the script. And then there's Section B. It's the one about your contextual knowledge about two of three pre-perceived genres of theatre. For our year, it's The Theatre of The Absurd, Restoration Comedy and Kabuki Theatre. You only need to do two genres, so we're leaving out Kabuki.
The thing is, you need to know everything about that genre inside out. And that's the problem. I can't seem to grasp the concepts revolving around the Theatre of The Absurd. It's, well, absurd. And the more I read up, the more confused and muddled up I get about the whole thing.
Perhaps I shall describe to you a little something about The Theatre of The Absurd. When you watch it, it really comes across as nonsense. That's the beauty of it. It is so nonsensical and most of the dialogue is meaningless, it becomes so meaningful. Take for example, a play on the phrase, "Light the gas" between Ben and Gus in The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter. They both argue over the use of the phrase, one saying 'light the gas' and the other arguing that it should be 'light the kettle'. After the argument, the so called 'victor' of the argument uses the phrase wrongly. Instead of using his self-prescribed phrase, he uses the other and the two arguers have an eye-to-eye fiery moment. This humorous and nonsensical row really shows how meaningless life can be, that we pick on the cliches and argue over the little things just to pass the time away before we die. It also brings out the failure of systems in life, that being language in this case. This furthers the point on meaninglessness.
So much for practising for my essay on The Theatre of The Absurd. Don't get me wrong, I do like the genre and the plays. They're really interesting and I guess it's the expression of what the playwrights felt at that point in History after the World War. Really interesting.
Not sure what Restoration Comedy's gonna be like though...
On a side note, Timothy's change in Blogskin set myself thinking about changing my blogskin as well. Getting quite bored of the red and black.
Oh I was going home and halfway, I started talking in the Irish slash Scottish accent. I can't really tell the difference. But anyway, I think it's quite fun to do :)
Sigh... Exams are next week and I'm failing all my mental sums and it makes me feel stupid. Stupider because of the Exams next week. Hope everything goes well.
Here's the low down. TSD papers are the written component which makes up about sixty or seventy percent of the total score for the subject. TSD papers consist mainly of Section A and Section B. Section A is a really long unseen text, usually lasting four to five pages. Questions will be asked about the staging of the script. And then there's Section B. It's the one about your contextual knowledge about two of three pre-perceived genres of theatre. For our year, it's The Theatre of The Absurd, Restoration Comedy and Kabuki Theatre. You only need to do two genres, so we're leaving out Kabuki.
The thing is, you need to know everything about that genre inside out. And that's the problem. I can't seem to grasp the concepts revolving around the Theatre of The Absurd. It's, well, absurd. And the more I read up, the more confused and muddled up I get about the whole thing.
Perhaps I shall describe to you a little something about The Theatre of The Absurd. When you watch it, it really comes across as nonsense. That's the beauty of it. It is so nonsensical and most of the dialogue is meaningless, it becomes so meaningful. Take for example, a play on the phrase, "Light the gas" between Ben and Gus in The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter. They both argue over the use of the phrase, one saying 'light the gas' and the other arguing that it should be 'light the kettle'. After the argument, the so called 'victor' of the argument uses the phrase wrongly. Instead of using his self-prescribed phrase, he uses the other and the two arguers have an eye-to-eye fiery moment. This humorous and nonsensical row really shows how meaningless life can be, that we pick on the cliches and argue over the little things just to pass the time away before we die. It also brings out the failure of systems in life, that being language in this case. This furthers the point on meaninglessness.
So much for practising for my essay on The Theatre of The Absurd. Don't get me wrong, I do like the genre and the plays. They're really interesting and I guess it's the expression of what the playwrights felt at that point in History after the World War. Really interesting.
Not sure what Restoration Comedy's gonna be like though...
On a side note, Timothy's change in Blogskin set myself thinking about changing my blogskin as well. Getting quite bored of the red and black.
Oh I was going home and halfway, I started talking in the Irish slash Scottish accent. I can't really tell the difference. But anyway, I think it's quite fun to do :)
Sigh... Exams are next week and I'm failing all my mental sums and it makes me feel stupid. Stupider because of the Exams next week. Hope everything goes well.
