Ionesco, Eugène

Ionesco, Eugène [ Eugène Ionescu] (1912–94) French dramatist of Romanian origin, exponent and virtual founder of the Theatre of the Absurd. Rejecting both the realistic and the psychological theatre, Ionesco's plays stress the impotence of language as a means of communication, the oppression of physical objects, and the incapacity of man to control his own destiny. Many are in one act: they include La Cantatrice chauve (1950), La Leçon (1951), and Les Chaises (1952), seen in London as The Bald Prima Donna (1956; NY, as The Bald Soprano, 1958), The Lesson (1955; NY, 1958), and The Chairs (1957); and Le Nouveau Locataire (1955, seen in London as The New Tenant in 1956 and in New York in 1960, but not staged in Paris until 1967). Ionesco's first full-length play, Amédée; ou, Comment s'en débarrasser (1954), seen in New York in 1955 and in London in French in 1963, was only partially successful. He endeavoured to rectify this by introducing into his next full-length play Tueur sans gages (1959), seen in New York in 1960 and in London in 1968 as The Killer, a well-intentioned if ultimately impotent ‘little man’, Élie Berenger, who reappears in Rhinocéros (1960), Le Roi se meurt (1962), and Le Piéton de l'air (1963). The first two were produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London with Laurence Olivier in Rhinoceros in 1960 and Alec Guinness in Exit the King in 1963 (NY, 1961 and 1968, the first starring Zero Mostel). In 1966 a new play, La Soif et Ia faim, was produced at the Comédie-Française. Ionesco's later work, which received less attention in the English-speaking world, included Jeux de massacre (1971) and Macbett (1972; London, 1973), a reworking of Shakespeare's play in his own image, The Mire (1972), an experimental montage of speech, image, and sound which broke new ground without departing from Ionesco's characteristic angst—ridden themes, and Ce formidable bordel (This Dreadful Mess, 1973). Voyages chez les morts (Journeys among the Dead, 1981; London, 1987) is an autobiographical play about a writer's dreams and memories.