Breaking the fourth wall

Samuel Beckett’s absurdist theatre

Abstract

The emergence of Samuel Beckett’s theatre in the London theatre scene in the 1950s has become a turning point in the history of British theatre. Having written plays whose then innovative dramatic language comprises verbal, visual and performative elements which at first caused great estrangement among directors, actors and spectators, Beckett remarkably reconfigured what theatre can mean. In this article, I will discuss distinctive features of Beckett’s theatre that have given rise to an absurdist aesthetics whose meta-theatricality subverts key principles of theatrical naturalism. Looking at Beckettian dramaturgy and performance, I will examine different ways in which plays like Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Happy Days declare their own theatricality, thus preventing the creation of dramatic illusion characteristic of naturalistic theatre.