Martin Esslin
Martin Julius Esslin (June 6, 1918–February 24, 2002) was a Hungarian-born English producer and script writer, 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 (1962).
Born Julius Pereszlenyi in Budapest, Esslin moved to Vienna with his family at a young age and attended school and university there. Of Jewish descent, he fled Austria in the wake of the Anschluss of 1938.
The theatre of the absurd 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.
He was head of BBC Radio Drama 1963-77, having previously worked for the external European Service. After leaving the BBC he held senior academic posts at Florida State and Stanford Universities.
He also adapted and translated many works from the original German, for example many plays of Wolfgang Bauer between 1967 and 1990.
External links
- Guardian obituary (February 27, 2002)
- Memorial Resolution (Stanford University, 2004)
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