The â¤?Theatre of the Absurd⤠has become a familiar term to describe a group of radical European playwrights â¤" writers such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter â¤" whose dark, funny and humane dramas wrestled profoundly with the meaningless absurdity of the human condition. It is a testament to the power and insight of Martin Esslinâ¤s landmark work, originally published in 1961, that its title should enter the English language in the way that it has. Now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series with a new preface by Marvin Carlson, The Theatre of the Absurd remains to this day a clear-eyed work of criticism on a compelling period of European writing.