In 1961 Martin Esslin named a body of plays that lacked plot character depth and details of time and space the Theatre of the Absurd. Esslin explained that this type of theatre minimalist in the extreme constituted a response to the existential crisis of Europe which was in the midst of recovering from World War II. But the fact that this body of theatre lacked details of time and space means that we may break the ties that anchor the Theatre of the Absurd irremediably to the historical context