The Théâtre national absurde presents the programmation for its 2026-2027 season, rife with classic absurd plays. The movement of the absurd is rooted in a reaction to the extent of humanity's greatest evils. Reflecting on the absurdity of life, the absurdists would often use wordplay and linguistic devices to incorporate this idea of nonsense, subverting traditional expectations of what theatre should look and feel like. This publication design addresses the concept of the absurd through a neodadaist lens, using materiality.
Playing on typography and layering, the publication essentially becomes a mass of words, image-play and type-play to echo the expert maneuvering of words and scene from the original movement. In parallel, this also serves to reflect the bombardment of information that is projected upon us in the digital age, inducing confusion and chaos. Who to trust? What to do? How to continue on when such atrocities occur? Is it truly possible to remove bias?
Le Théâtre National Absurde is a bold, politically engaged company reimagining absurdist theatre—Beckett, Ionesco, Jarry—for a world drowning in algorithmic certainty and sociopolitical chaos.
In an age of AI-generated, simulated “perfection,” the theater bets on the irreplaceable: live bodies, spontaneous laughter, the unscripted accident. This is what being human is about.
Inside title letters are collections of different typefaces. The texts are sourced from various origins relating to the concepts of each play or section inside the book. In this case, for the play “Les bâtisseurs d'empire ou le Schmürz”, the texts were extracted from various Epstein files in the DOJ, reflecting on the sheer absurd quantity released and the invisibility and powerlessness of victims. The truth itself, barely matters, when powerful individuals are involved. Similarly, each section's layout design shifts based on certain aspects of the play. For the Schmürz, typography is contained in smaller and smaller frames to reflect the compression of the characters' building, they who seek to escape an unseen and nebulous 'Sound'.
The strategy for the release of the programmation relies on two expressions of the concept. One, fully conceptual, and the other commercial, to respect budgetary constraints that often comes with the cultural sector. The conceptual version is completely printed on vellum acetate, in a book format, and features an explosion of the typography in as much as 25 different typefaces acting as texture. Destined for top donors, an extra copy would be exhibited in the theater venue to be interacted with.
As for the commercial version, it is designed for the press in a double-sided accordion fold, with a condensed arrangement of the content. Here, the format also plays into this idea of excess, of the absurd, in a more controlled manner. Designed for large print runs and the general public.
The strategic insight that spurred this solution is the fact that in today's world, experiences become more and more precious. Therefore, especially for a client such as a theatre, theatricality itself and the creation of novel experiences is what will be the most compelling driver for people seeking these experiences, and such outputs by themselves shall inspire curiosity in others.
