Kerala - Thrissur   

Musings on absurdity of life

Photo: K. C. Sowmish

Spirit of Camus: A scene from ‘Sisyphus Rock' staged at the Third International Theatre Festival of Kerala in Thrissur on Wednesday.

THRISSUR: In early 20th century, a voice rose from Algeria, “Do not walk in front of me, I may not follow. Do not walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend.”

The world indeed walked beside him when Albert Camus uttered, “In the absurd world, the value of a notion or of a life is measured by its sterility.”

Sisyphus Rock, a physical theatre piece acted out by Elias Cohen and presented by the La Tempest Physical Theatre in Chile at the Third International Theatre Festival of Kerala on Wednesday, invoked the spirit of arguably the finest work on absurdity by Camus. In the play, human condition is compared to the fate of Sisyphus, a king punished in Hades to push a rock up a hill only to have it roll down again. He reminds us of Kerala's own Naranathu Bhranthan.

The play refers to Camus' death in a car crash with his publisher Michel Gallimard near the French town of Sens. Long before his death, he had said that the most absurd way to die was to be killed in a car crash.

The monologue-rich play is crisply acted. The physical theatre never turns flashy or deviates from the theme. There is a delicate balance on stage between the abstract and the concrete that shows Cohen's mastery over the medium. Camus ends his argument about absurdity on a positive note.

He says Sysiphus has outsmarted the Gods because he has decided to be happy in the face of adversity.

If life is a struggle through absurdities, how do you handle it? Camus writes, “The struggle itself…is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Food poisoning: 33 hospitalised
Post-funerary rites performed
Lopsided growth plans lead to rights violations: activist
Readmit Murali to Congress: Sudheeran
Musings on absurdity of life

Copyright © 2010, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu