Sunday, March 22, 2009

How absurd can you get?

Absurdity was achieved with this brilliantly constructed play. I liked how Printer, as a playwright, was successfully able to capture the atmosphere of the setting (West London right after World War II) and the spirit of the characters from his imagination to bring them to life. He is able to make the reader feel like he/she is present in the succeeding events of the play. The characters show absurdity from the words that come out of their mouth and the constant and useless repetition. It has a humorous side to it as do all “absurd” plays have, but not too funny. Printer once said: "As far as I am concerned, The Caretaker IS funny, up to a point. Beyond that point, it ceases to be funny, and it is because of that point that I wrote it." According to this quote, the main goal behind writing an absurd play was not only for comical reasons but to point out the social issues affecting the country and perhaps to mock the current political situation at the time.
Based on experience, I did not particularly enjoy reading works for this genre in Drama. I would prefer to follow logical events in a literary work such as a play rather than laugh about something that makes absolutely no sense. As previously mentioned, the playwright did a great job in portraying the absurdity of characters from their speech to their actions but not enough for my taste. I’m considered as more conventional since I prefer the element of logic to be present in the works I read.