Theatre of the Absurd Across Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Harold Pinter and Farouq Mohammed
Author(s): Hussein Alaa Jebur
Authors Affiliations:
MA in English, Banaras Hindu University
Department of English, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
DOIs:10.2017/IJRCS/202508011     |     Paper ID: IJRCS202508011Abstract: This essay provides a parallel assessment of the characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd that are present in the works of British dramatist Harold Pinter and Iraqi entertainer Farouq Mohammed, and this is done by identifying the similarities of the deployment of absurdist features in the different cultural and political settings in the two plays. It takes the example of absurdist principles originating from Albert Camus and further demonstrated by Beckett and Ionesco's theater advances. It studies how the two authors employ the matter of human life, loneliness, silence, and the disintegration of communication. Harold Pinter’s works, including The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter, are filled with unclear locality, sparse speech, and the fear from the unknown—methods that represent the emotional emptiness in the aftermath of World War II and the deep anxiety in the unconscious mind. Completely different, Farouq Mohammed’s plays of absurd are filled with the same sadness of existential guilt and the symbolism of absurd, but they are still the extremely local socio-political issues of Iraq like wars, dictatorship, and cultural repression that are the background of them. His works depict an Arab version of absurdism wherein he combines conventional theatrical concepts, interpretation of fragmentation, and political allegory. This paper, by going into some detail about character traits, language, and the general structure of the plays, points out how the two artists are able to convey the feeling of human absurdity, yet at the same time, they speak of their own cultural realities. The thesis of this work is that Pinter and Mohammed, though having been deeply influenced by different historical events and facing different worldviews, employ absurdist theater to depict power, identity, and meaning in a broken world. This intercultural lens deepens our insight into the diffuse nature of absurdist drama and its ability to go beyond the limitations of languages and places.
Hussein Alaa Jebur (2025); Theatre of the Absurd Across Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Harold Pinter and Farouq Mohammed, International Journal of Research Culture Society, ISSN(O): 2456-6683, Volume – 9, Issue – 8, Pp. 67-74. Available on – https://ijrcs.org/

