Esslin, Martin
"The dignity of a man lies in his ability to face reality in all its meaninglessness." (04/06/2022)
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Martin Julius Esslin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Julius Pereszlényi Hungarian: Pereszlényi Gyula Márton 6 June 1918 |
| Died | 24 February 2002 (aged 83) |
| Education | University of Vienna Reinhardt Seminar |
| Occupation(s) | Theatre critic; scholar |
| Notable work | The Theatre of the Absurd |
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Martin Julius Esslin OBE (6 June 1918 – 24 February 2002) was a Hungarian-born British producer, dramatist, journalist, adaptor and translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama, known for coining the term "theatre of the absurd" in his 1961 book The Theatre of the Absurd. This work has been called "the most influential theatrical text of the 1960s".[1]
Life and work
[edit]Born Pereszlényi Gyula Márton in Budapest, Esslin moved to Vienna with his family at a young age. He studied Philosophy and English at the University of Vienna and later studied directing under Max Reinhardt at the Reinhardt Seminar of Dramatic Arts in 1928; actor Milo Sperber was a classmate. Of Jewish descent (but not of Jewish practice), he fled Austria in the wake of the Anschluss of 1938, moving to Brussels for a year and then moving on to England.[2][3]
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.[4] Ahmad Kamyabi Mask criticized Esslin for a purported "colonialist" quality of this title for the Avant-garde theater.[5][6] 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 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 Florida State University from 1969 to 1976 and Stanford University from 1977 to 1988.[2] In 1977, Esslin joined the Magic Theatre as the first resident dramaturg in American theatre, a position now integral to American new playhouses.[7]
Some of the works he adapted and translated from the original German between 1967 and 1990 included many plays of Wolfgang Bauer. Original works included Theatre of the Absurd (1962), Absurd Drama (1965), Brecht: A Choice of Evils (1959), The Anatomy of Drama (1976), The Peopled Wound: The Work of Harold Pinter (1970), Artaud (1976) and The Age of Television (1981), The Field of Drama (1987), and several other essays, articles, and reviews.[2]
In 1947, he married Renate Gerstenberg, and they worked together on many translations (some she did herself but they were published under his name in order to sell better). They had a child named Monica.
Death and legacy
[edit]Esslin died in London on 24 February 2002 at the age of 83 after having suffered from Parkinson's disease.[2][8] Keble College, Oxford maintains a special collection of over 3000 of his personal items, including his own works and books by other prominent dramatists, and the student drama society is named after him.
References
[edit]- ^ John Calder (27 February 2002). "Illuminating writer and radio drama producer". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
- ^ a b c d Guardian obituary, 27 February 2002; accessed 11 August 2014.
- ^ "Martin Esslin (1918-2002)". www.theatredatabase.com. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
- ^ Ionesco rejects Esslin's label, noormags.com; accessed 11 August 2014.
- ^ by Ahmad Kamyabi Mask, noormags.com; accessed 11 August 2014.
- ^ profile, noormags.com; accessed 11 August 2014.
- ^ [1], magictheatre.org; accessed 6 September 2018.
- ^ Sanford, John (6 March 2002). "Martin Esslin, drama professor and theater critic, dies". The Stanford Report. Stanford News Archive. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
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Martin Esslin, who has died aged 83, was a scholar and a man of action, whose wide knowledge of European literature and culture served him well during his two main careers: as a BBC producer and as a professor of drama in the United States.
His long-term importance, however, must lie principally in his analytical writing on the theatre. In an age of increasing specialisation, he had a refreshing breadth of vision, while his penetrating mind could quickly comprehend when something new and important was happening in the arts. He could explain the complex in a straightforward and lucid manner, and his judgments were invaluable. His book The Theatre Of The Absurd was the most influential theatrical text of the 1960s.
Esslin was of Hungarian origin, born and educated in Vienna, and influenced by Max Reinhardt's famous 1928 seminar in Vienna on dramatic art, where the great actor and director passed on his knowledge and techniques. He left Vienna for Britain because of the Anschluss, and got a job at the BBC, where, by 1940, he had become a producer and scriptwriter.
He worked for the European Service from 1941 to 1955, broadcasting during and after the war to Germany, and eventually became head of the European production department. His knowledge of European theatre led to the translation of many works into English, and, where the BBC had led the way, many theatre productions followed, often using the same versions that Esslin had made or commissioned.
For a large circle of European intellectual refugees from Nazism in London, the BBC became the principal means of support. Esslin knew virtually everyone in that group, and, in his quiet and efficient way, gave work and opportunities to many of them.
In 1951, he collaborated with Berthold Goldschmidt, who, in the 1920s, had been a rising German composer, on an opera, in English, based on Shelley's The Cenci. The work was planned for the Festival of Britain, although it was not staged until a Ger man production in 1994.
In 1961, Esslin became assistant head of radio drama under Barbara Bray, and, when she moved to Paris in 1963, he replaced her, retaining that post until 1977, when he moved for part of each year to the US.
During his time at the BBC, Esslin produced a stream of articles, essays and books, which earned him a reputation as one of the best literary journalists and critics. He advised Arts Council panels and repertory and experimental theatres, helped writers to obtain bursaries and performances, and produced a number of volumes on leading figures of the day, including the influential Brecht, A Choice Of Evils (1959), which coincided with the rising interest in that seminal figure.
The book that was to change his life was The Theatre Of The Absurd (1962). The title became the catch-phrase that delineated one of the new streams of theatrical writing that emerged in the early 1950s, the other being the British "angry" drama. The eclectic Esslin was interested in both, but it is for making sense of the absurdists that he is remembered.
"Absurdist drama" covered a wide range of plays, from Beckett to Arthur Adamov, from Pinter and John Arden to Ionesco. The last, perhaps, most deserved the portmanteau term "absurd", but Esslin used it to cover a whole range of 20th-century drama, from Genet and Arrabal to Buzzati, Frisch, Grass, Albee, Gelber and Kopit.
The book rapidly became a text book in universities, and led to lecture invitations, especially on the lucrative American circuit. Jewish by origin but in no way religious, Esslin liked to relate how the chairwoman of a Catholic society to whom he talked in a small American town told him, "You're just the kind of man we need in the church."
Esslin's writings and lectures led to his appointment as professor of theatre at Florida state university (1969-76), after which a special chair was created for him at Stanford, where he became professor of drama (1977-88). He never really retired on returning to Britain, continuing to take an active part in the theatre as writer, translator, reviewer and adviser.
Among his other books, between 1965 and 1988, are Pinter: The Playwright; An Anatomy Of Drama; Artaud; Mediations - Essays On Brecht, Beckett And The Media; The Age Of Televison; and The Field Of Drama. There were also the less well-known, but equally interesting, The Genius Of The German Theatre (1968) and The War Theatre Of Europe (1970). The writers he translated include Ödön von Horwath, Wedekind and Wolfgang Bauer.
In 1947, Esslin married Renate Gerstenberg, who collaborated with him on many translations and, indeed, was entirely responsible for some that appeared under his (well- known) name - for the sake of better sales.
A genial, friendly and self-confident intellectual, he was generous with his time and knowledge, an excellent conversationalist and a popular member of the Garrick Club. Like many eastern Europeans, he was politically on the intellectual right, but never allowed his anti-socialist views, which did him no harm at American universities, to cloud his judgment very far.
Among various honours and distinctions he received were the title of professor from the Austrian government, and the OBE in 1972. He is survived by Renate and their daughter, Monica.
· Martin Julius Esslin (Pereszlenyi), writer, academic and radio drama producer, born June 8 1918; died February 24 2002.
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