What is the 'theatre of the absurd'?

What is the 'theatre of the absurd'?

The Theatre of the Absurd, also known as the New Theatre Movement, is a style of theatre that emerged in the late 40's, 50's, and 60's, in Europe, mainly out of France. The four vanguards of this movement, who started it, or who are attributed for starting it, are Lonesco, Beckett, Jean Genet, and Adamov. And some of the best examples include Lonesco's "Rhinoceros" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". In general terms, the Theatre of the Absurd incorporates nonsensical dialogue, non sequiturs, in a way to sort of capture the chaos of life, the seeming nonsensical nature of life. And this was really sort of a push after World War II, and the sort of the atrocities that were created. People were just living in an insane world. And what's interesting about it is that, as sort of nonsensical as it may be, as the incorporation of surrealistic elements may be, it also has an underlying layer of truth to it. And, in fact, perhaps we can learn more about the chaos we live through a depiction of life as chaos. If that makes sense.