sticmurder. Ionesco deals with the same subject matter in his Killing Game. Yet again, when this deviceis employed in The Street of Crocodiles it is only a visual resonance of a style that is given a differentvalue here. When the character of the father is lost to Joseph he reapers in wooden effigy. In notime the wooden effigy is destroyed methodically by another character. Yet it is Josephs experienceof loss that is being illustrated. The fathers demise is only presented for its effect on the son. the father himself is given the line No, no, no, there is no dead matter. Lifelessness is only adisguise... The Street of Crocodiles speaks about searching for purpose and meaning just as theaforementioned work does. It is however an innately different style of art. Throughout the piece thereis evidence of finding meaning and purpose. While a similar style is shared, it is used here to drawvastly different conclusions. Often in the plays of the absurdist theatre words are shown to have nomeaning or use. Their very lack of purpose or impact can be identified by the void on which theycontinue to have no effect. In Samuel Becketts Krapps Last Tape the playwrights sad clownunwinds the word spool until it has lost its meaning. At first it becomes a silly plaything and thenfinally is discarded as debris. Words lose their value when a character discovered that they can notuse them to communicate anything.The question of the possible impact of the spoken word Makes several appearancesin The Street of Crocodiles as well. The characters speak in a number of different languagesthroughout the plays dialogues. At times they are understood by Joseph whilst sometimes theirmeaning does not reach him. Yet here again, as with the example of the plays opening sequence, itis only the appearance of an absurdist characteristic. Here the use of language explores the outerlimits of its means of communicating. In several instances, Josep...
