The influence of absurdist theatre on in-yer-face theatre in the 1990’s as exemplified by Beckett’s "Endgame" and Ravenhill’s "Shopping and F***ing"

Anne Katrin Fack

Nov. 2017 · GRIN Verlag

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Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, language: English, abstract: “In-Yer-Face Theatre is to the 1990s what absurdism was to the 1950s” In the following paper, I’d like to investigate whether this statement is true or if both movements should be seen as two different theatre forms without any connection. As a basis of my investigations serves Agnes M. Kitzler’s study about the influence of Absurdist Theatre on Contemporary In-Yer-Face Theatre (Kitzler, 2011) as well as Aleks Sierz’ book on In-Yer-Face-Theatre (Sierz, 2001) and Martin Esslin’s book on the Theatre of the Absurd (Esslin, 2001). I will mostly try to give a general overview about similarities and differences between absurdism and In-Yer-Face Theatre before I give distinct examples of Samuel Beckett’s play Endgame and Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F***ing and finally come to a conclusion if In-Yer-Face Theatre is to the 1990s what absurdism was to the 1950s or not. I firmly believe that as this paper is limited to seven until eight pages it is more important to give a general overview which is more effective to answer the question whether both movements show similarities or not. However, I think it is important to undertake several aspects a closer examination in a broader study, which could be, for example, a bachelor thesis.