The Sandbox 1s4f60

By, Cleopatra Kisau Norhaziera Binti Muhammad Sim Wen Yi Tan Cheng Cheng Zahidatul Fathiah Binti Maskun

(TESL Students of UPSI)

THE SANDBOX by Edward Albee

Questions: 1. Explain the meaning of absurd play. 2. Based on this play, the absurd play exists in the sandbox or not. Reasons.

According to the 7th edition of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, absurd brings out the meaning of completely ridiculous; not logical and sensible. I find out a blog and the writer’s nickname is Last Island says that, “It is very clear from the very word Absurd that it means nonsensical, opposed to reason, something silly, foolish, senseless, ridiculous and topsy-turvy. So, a drama having a cock and bull story would be called an absurd play.” Another meaning brings out by the Literary Dictionary, absurd is a term derived from the existentialism of Albert Camus, and often applied to the modern sense of human purposelessness in a universe without meaning or value. Many 20th-century writers of prose fiction have stressed the absurd nature of human existence: notable instances are the novels and stories of Franz Kafka, in which the characters face alarmingly incomprehensible predicaments. The critic Martin Esslin coined the phrase theatre of the absurd in 1961 to refer to a number of dramatists of the 1950s (led by Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco)

whose works evoke the absurd by abandoning logical form, character, and dialogue together with realistic illusion. The classic work of absurdist theatre is Beckett's En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot, 1952), which revives some of the conventions of clowning and farce to represent the impossibility of purposeful action and the paralysis of human aspiration. Other dramatists associated with the theatre of the absurd include Edward Albee, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, and Václav Havel. For a fuller , consult Arnold P. Hinchliffe, The Absurd (1969). Besides that, from the website which named Dictionary 3.0 states out the definition and meaning of absurd retrieved from Wordnet (r) 2.0. According to this website, absurd is an adjective and it is inconsistent with reason or logic or common sense; “the absurd predicament of seeming to argue that virtue is highly desirable but intensely unpleasant”. It is synonym with unreasonable. This definition and meaning actually is originated by Walter Lippman. Furthermore, the word absurd is also completely devoid of wisdom or good sense; “the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework”, “that’s a cockeyed idea”, “ask a nonsensical answer”, “a contribution so small as to be laughable”, it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion”, “a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history”, her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous”. It is synonym with cockeyed, derisory, idiotic, laughable, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous and ridiculous. This meaning and definition is originated by Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913). Apart from this, the definition of absurd play is the play on the stage is what it is without before or after, the action is pure and complete and immediately viewed by the audience. Drama is a genre of literature in which the text and performance both have equal importance. It is true that firstly the ideas of the dramatist are penned down in the form of text and performance comes secondly. A new form of drama made its appearance that disqualified all the standards and rules by which a drama has been appreciated from many centuries and was classified under the label ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’. The Sandbox is a play written in 1959 by Edward Albee, one of the American playwrights who reflect a mastery of the Theatre of the Absurd. This play begins when the Young Man is performing calisthenics near a sandbox at the beach during the brightest day which he continues to do until the end of the play. Whereas, Mommy and Daddy brings Grandma all the way out from the city and more or less dump her in the sandbox while the

Musician is playing his instrument off and on following the instruction of the other characters in the play but mainly Mommy. At first, Grandma keeps on groaning for being dump by Mommy and Daddy but she reverts from that childish behaviour and begins to speak coherently to the audience. She then converse comfortably with the Young Man as he treats her well compared to Mommy and Daddy which through their actions and dialogue, she is just a chore that they must take care of. Mommy finds out that Grandma’s death is coming. At the end of the story, Grandma realizes that she cannot move anymore and that is the moment when the Young Man confesses to her that he is actually the angel of the death who comes for her. Even though he reveals it like an amateur, Grandma still compliments him and then closes her eyes with a smile on her face. As the word ‘Absurd’ brings the meaning of nonsensical, opposed to reason, something silly, foolish, senseless, ridiculous, and topsy-turvy, we found out that the play or ‘The Sandbox’ shows these properties in certain aspects. For the first reason, the motif or theme of this play is unexplained. Although on the first page of the play is stated that the piece of drama is actually written by the author, Edward Albee as a remembrance for his grandmother but the play shows as if the characters especially mommy does not respect his mother. At the beginning of the story, the sound of appreciation is not shown in that particular scene where Mommy and Daddy dump Grandmother in the sandbox. DADDY: Where do we put her? MOMMY (with the same little laugh): Wherever I say, of course. Let me see...well...all right, over here...in the sandbox. (Pause). Well, what are you waiting for Daddy?...The sandbox! (Together they carry GRANDMA over the sandbox and more or less dump her in.) Moreover, ‘The Sandbox’ can be regarded as an absurd play in of its characters. For instance, the character of Young Man is purposely the Angel of the Death but the writer discloses him as a 25 years old man with a good looking and well-built figure for he is performing calisthenics from the very beginning until the end of the story. As Young Man is intentionally described as the Angel of the Death, instead of showing his character as an angel which is supposed to be invisible, Albee exposes him as a young man with good looking face and well-built boy in a bathing suit. In addition, he has not been given a name yet. So, the absurdity is shown in this character of a Young Man. Other than that, the

character of the Musician man is present but it is not recognizable for whatever he does or whatever he presents is purposeless. As we read the play, we can only see him playing his instrument on and off just when others ask him to do so. Thus, it makes the play absurd because of the pointless character of the Musician man. Next, the absurdity of this play is indicated by the illogical flow of the story in the play. Firstly is the willingness of the actor or performer to interact with the audience. For example, Grandma asks for the light not to be turned off yet because it is not the right time. It shows that she interacts with the audience, probably the stage manager in order to control the flow of the story. Other example is the performers seem like acting spontaneously on the stage. It happens when Grandma asks the Young Man for his name but he answers that the studio has not given him any name. From their conversation, the actor who is acting as the Young Man is speaking as if he is not following any script by just blaming on the studio or crew for not giving him any name for that character. In our opinion, it displays the absurdity of the play because usually the performers are not the one who controls the stage or the flow of the story but the director. In other words, performers have to follow the script provided. Another scene that shows the illogical or senseless aspect of this play is about the time setting in the play. We found out that the setting of time in this play is controlled by the performers. The time that takes place in the play changes depends on when the performers want it to be. For example, at the beginning of the story, it starts with a brightest day where Mommy and Daddy are at the beach along with the Young Man but when Grandma said that ‘shouldn’t it be getting dark now’, the lights on the stage is dimmed showing that the night comes on. Another example is when the night is supposed to come to an end, Grandma refuses for the light to be on which means she doesn’t want the scene to change from night to morning yet. But, Daddy is the one who stresses that it is day light when he says, ‘Mommy! It’s daylight!’ Therefore, it is nonsensical here that the performers are controlling the stage and the time setting of the story when they actually have to follow the script given. On the other hand, the flow of the story is vague which is not clearly stated. For example, the place setting is not clearly stated out in the play. But, in our assumption, the place setting is actually at the graveyard (sandbox). The reason for us to assume that is Daddy feels cold at the beginning of the play and the young man is a priest at the end of the story. Furthermore, Grandma is going to die so that we assume the play takes place at a graveyard and the Grandma is going to be buried. Besides that, the existence of the sandbox is

ambiguous. We have been cracking our head thinking that what does it symbolise. As readers, we need to guess and use our critical thinking to define the meaning and in our opinion, we think that ‘sandbox’ actually is something that can bring happiness because when we were small, we did enjoy to build castle in the sandbox but it does not make sense for this play because Grandma is going to die which is a sad incident. Hence, we assume that sandbox is actually a coffin or hole is being dug to fix a coffin. According to the evidence above, we believe that the absurd play does exist in ‘The Sandbox’. After reading this play, we can see that Mommy is the decision maker of the family, for example, she is the one who made the decision to put Grandma in the ‘sandbox’ the remaining hours of her life. She is also the one who made the decision to start the music. Besides that, we think that the music is actually symbolizing the life of Grandma, ends. Furthermore, The Young Man symbolizes death as is proven by his words in his conversations with the old woman. He is eventually takes her breath away to death in the end of the play. In a nutshell, Edward Albee manages to express his feelings of disappointment regarding the way our society treats the elderly. This play portrays Mommy and Daddy as self-involved and selfish people who cannot be bothered with Grandma. He conveys his ideas and opinions in the form of an allegory. We also notice the characters do not have name for their own in this play. We assume that the names ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ suggest that they have children of their own. Nowadays, our society is too familiar pathetic attitude toward old people. What we can learn from this play is we should think twice before we choose to ignore our conscience and spend more of our efforts in expressing comion, love and care to the elderly like Grandma in this play.