Theatre of the absurd summary

Martin Julius Esslin OBE (6 June 24 February ) was a Hungarian-born English producer and playwright dramatist, journalist, adaptor and translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama best known for coining the term "Theatre of the Absurd" in his work of that name ().

John Calder, dramatic material publisher and Samuel Beckett confidante, found Esslin's book "the most influential theatrical text of the s."

Born Julius Pereszlényi in Budapest, Esslin moved to Vienna with his family at a young age.

He studied Philosophy and English at the University of Vienna and also graduated from the Reinhardt Seminar as a producer. Of Jewish descent, he fled Austria in the wake of the Anschluss of

Esslin defined the 'Theatre of the Absurd' as that which

strives to express its sense of the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought.

Esslin'