, birth_date =
, birth_place =
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, death_date =
, death_place =
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, UK
, education =
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
Reinhardt Seminar
, occupation = Theatre critic; scholar
, notable_works = ''
The Theatre of the Absurd''
Martin Julius Esslin
OBE (6 June 1918 – 24 February 2002) was a
Hungarian-born British
producer,
dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
,
adaptor and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
,
critic, academic scholar and professor of drama, known for coining the term "
theatre of the absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd (french: théâtre de l'absurde ) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style o ...
" in his 1961 book ''The Theatre of the Absurd''. This work has been called "the most influential theatrical text of the 1960s".
Life and work
Born Pereszlényi Gyula Márton in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, Esslin moved to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
with his family at a young age. He studied Philosophy and English at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
and later studied directing under
Max Reinhardt at the
Reinhardt Seminar of Dramatic Arts in 1928; actor
Milo Sperber
Milo Sperber (20 March 1911 – 22 December 1992) was a British actor, director and writer, who was born in Poland.
Early life
Sperber was born in 1911 into a family of Polish Hasidic Jews who fled anti-Semitism during the Second World War. Hi ...
was a classmate. Of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
descent (but not of Jewish practice), he fled Austria in the wake of the ''
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
'' of 1938, moving to Brussels for a year and then moving on to England.
In his book, ''Theatre of the Absurd'', written in 1961, he defined the "Theatre of the Absurd" as follows:
This attribute of "absurdity" was not accepted by many of the playwrights associated with this trend. Playwright
Eugène Ionesco stated that he did not like labels.
Ahmad Kamyabi Mask criticized Esslin for a purported "colonialist" quality of this title for the Avant-garde theater. However, his work inspired other playwrights such as
Samuel Beckett,
Arthur Adamov,
Jean Genet, and
Harold Pinter (as well as Ionesco).
He began working for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 1940, serving as a producer, script writer and broadcaster. He headed BBC Radio Drama from 1963–77, having previously worked for the external European Service. He was later given the position of Head of Radio Drama, in which he tried to bring to life his dream of "national theatre of the air". He and his BBC team also translated many foreign works into English during this time. After leaving the BBC he held senior academic posts at
from 1977 to 1988.
as the first resident dramaturg in American theatre, a position now integral to American new playhouses.