The Theatre in Search of a Fix

Extract

One of the most amazing recent phenomena in our theatre is the discovery and gradual acceptance by audiences and critics of the plays of Beckett, lonesco, Adamov, Genet, and Ghelderode. With a prudishness that is just about par for the course, we tend to reject these plays and label their authors opprobiously as avant-garde. But somehow—in spite of our rejection—these plays keep reasserting themselves; they have a mysterious hold on our sensibilities. We find ourselves going to them, being moved or amused by them, and applauding them fully aware that we don't always know what they mean or what their authors intend. For all their seeming unintelligibility and simplicity, these plays possess a vitality we have missed, and more important, in their boldly experimental nature they are symptomatic of the unrest which prevails in the contemporary theatre. These playwrights want to “fix” the theatre, and their plays suggest ways that have been taken to revitalize it.