二战后主要英国戏剧流派

Pinter is the leading English language 哈罗德·品特 哈罗德 品特(1930~) absurdist dramatist. In his plays, he never finds it necessary to explain why things occur or who anyone is. Besides, the interruption of outside forces upon a stable environment also characterizes his early plays, which were thus named “comedies of menace". Unlike Beckett’s or Ionesco’s works, however, Pinter's dramatic world seems at least to be somewhat realistic. His best-known plays include The Room, The Dumb Waiter 送菜升降机 Caretaker看房人 送菜升降机, and The Birthday Party生日晚会. His sparse style and gift for creating tension and horror through the most economic of means has made him one of the most valued playwrights today & won him the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Eugene Ionesco
尤金·尤奈斯库 尤金 尤奈斯库(1909-1994)
Some Plays by Ionesco 部分剧照与海报
In The Chairs, an elderly couple are to tell an important message to the world; they open the door to numerous invisible guests, gradually fill the stage with chairs, one for each supposed guest. The message is presented by a mute orator, who has been motionless when the old couple commit suicide, plunging themselves through the windows into the water below. The orator. faces the rows of empty chairs, attempting to speak, using sign language, desperate to make himself understood; then from his throat come moans and groans and the sort of harsh sounds made by deaf mutes 聋哑人.
Rhinoceros 犀牛
Berenger is an ordinary city man. He is unmoved by the news that rhinoceros are at large on the streets. This results a quarrel between him & his friend Jean and his secretary Daisy outside a shop. The argument continues and many locals become involved. This results in confusion and chaos. In the government office where Berenger works, he realizes that the staff are gradually becoming Rhinoceros, and Daisy and himself are the only human beings left. Then to his surprise, Daisy turns into a rhinoceros as well. He now concludes he will fight against all the rhinoceros...
Waiting for Godot 《等待戈多》 等待戈多》
“Why are we here, that is the question… We are waiting for Godot to come” On a empty road, two tramps are waiting for the mysterious Godot. They quarrel, make up, consider suicide, try to sleep but still Godot doesn’t arrive. With its sublime balance of comedy & poignancy, vaudeville 杂耍 & anxiety, Waiting for Godot is one of the most important plays of the 20th century.
Harold Pinter
Some Plays by Pinter 部分剧作
Harold Pinter 哈罗德 品特 (1930r
送菜升降机
In a seedy basement below a café, two professional killers await orders for their next task. Prepared and ready, they don't know when the call will come, or who their next victim will be. One thing's for sure: they aren't expecting an order for steak and chips! The Dumb Waiter is typical of Pinter’s early play: claustrophobic, bare, simultaneously menacing and amusing. With its echoes of current world events, the play raises questions about power, politics, class, friendship &, ultimately, betrayal & is a partner play to The Caretaker.
Waiting for Godot 《等待戈多》剧照 等待戈多》
Eugene Ionesco’s main focus is on the futility of communication交流的枉然, so the language of his plays often reflects this by being almost wholly nonsensical 胡言乱语. He approaches the absurdity of life by making his characters comical & unable to control their own existence. Ionesco was born in Romania, but grew up in Paris. Then he returned to Romania & attended the University there. While learning to speak English, he noticed in his textbook the illogical phrases & these phrases became the dialogue for his first play The Bald Soprano 秃头歌女. After This successful play, he went on to write other absurd works such as Rhinoceros 犀牛 & The Chairs 椅子.
Samuel Beckett 撒缪尔 贝克特, Eugene Lonesco 尤金 尤奈斯 撒缪尔·贝克特 尤金·尤奈斯 哈罗德·品特 库, Harold Pinter 哈罗德 品特
Major Absurdist Playwrights 主要荒诞派剧作家
Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Beckett has widely influenced the course of 20th century literature. The impact of his plays (Waiting for Godot, Endgame), novels & numerous short stories & poems have added the word Beckettian to the literary dictionary. His work depicts the unrelenting plight of contemporary existence: living at the edge of an abyss, in an indifferent universe, trying simply to "go on" with daily life in the face of recognition of futility. His ability to shape this modern experience into art has led the way for Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, & many other writes.
English Literature after the Second World War
第二次世界大战以后
重要的英国戏剧流派
Theater of the Absurd 荒诞派戏剧
Theater of the Absurd came about as a reaction to World War II. It took the basis of existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which presented a world which can not be logically explained, life is in one word, ABSURD! Needless to say, this genre of theatre took quite some time to catch on because it used techniques that seemed to be illogical to the theatre world. The plots often strayed from the more traditional episodic structure, and seem to move in a circle, ending the same way it began. The scenery was often unrecognizable, and to make matters worse, the dialogue never seemed to make any sense.