Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd

Carl Lavery is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Glasgow, UK. His publications include Jean Genet Politics and Performance, with Clare Finburgh (2006), Sacred Theatre (2007), Walking, Writing and Performance: Autobiographical Texts by Dee Heddon, Carl Lavery and Phil Smith (2009), The Politics of Jean Genet's Late Theatre: Spaces of Revolution (2010), Contemporary French Theatre and Performance, with Clare Finburgh (2011), Good Luck Everybody. Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, with David Williams (2011), and he is editor with Nick Whybrow of a special issue of Performance Research 'On Foot' (2012). Clare Finburgh is a senior lecturer in the department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex, UK. Her research focuses on French and UK contemporary performance, notably innovations in French modern and contemporary playwriting and directing; and representations of conflict in UK theatre. She has co-written Jean Genet (with David Bradby, 2011), and co-edited Genet: Performance and Politics (2006) and Contemporary French Theatre and Performance (2011).

A landmark study in second wave ecocriticism, Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd excavates the non-anthropocentric aesthetics of classic absurdist theatre. It also convincingly suggests absurdism’s foundational relevance to contemporary notions of ecological theatre … The insightful analyses of this volume of essays reposition absurdism as a deconstruction of the systems of thought and (dramatic) subjectivity that undergird our anti-ecological behaviors … This book will be of special interest to those who study absurdism, but it will appeal to anyone who has ever questioned the boundaries inscribed between mind and nature, social reality and the greater environment.

• Introduction: Greening the Absurd - Carl Lavery and Clare Finburgh1. Caryl Churchill’s ‘Dark Ecology’ - Elaine Aston2. The Garden in the Machine: Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, and the American Absurd - Stephen Bottoms3. Mutant Bodies: the Absurd in Eastern European Experience - Ralph Yarrow4. Recycling Beckett - Joe Kelleher5. Rare Butterflies, Persecution, and Pinball Machines: Environment, Subjectivity, and Society in the Theatre of Arthur Adamov - Franc Chamberlain6. Ionesco’s Green Lesson: Toxic Environments, Ecologies of Air - Carl Lavery7. Nettles in the Rose Garden: Ecocentrism in Jean Genet’s Theatre - Clare Finburgh8. The Secluded Voice: The Impossible Call Home in Early Pinter - Mark Taylor Batty and Carl LaveryEpilogue: David Williams NotesBibliographyNotes on ContributorsIndex