DOCSLIB.ORG

Interview: Eugène Ionesco Author(S): Emmanuel Jacquart and Eugène Ionesco Source: Diacritics, Vol

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Interview: Eugène Ionesco Author(S): Emmanuel Jacquart and Eugène Ionesco Source: Diacritics, Vol Interview: Eugène Ionesco Author(s): Emmanuel Jacquart and Eugène Ionesco Source: Diacritics, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Summer, 1973), pp. 45-48 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/464536 Accessed: 08-05-2017 05:02 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Diacritics This content downloaded from 128.239.195.115 on Mon, 08 May 2017 05:02:54 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ooLl5 OKOW INTRODUCTION/ I first met lonesco in 1965. He was Emmanuel Jacquart: If you have no objection, I supposed to give a public lecture in an art cinema in would like to start with the fifties and your early Bordeaux. He began by asking his audience whether days in the theatre. How do you explain that authors he should start by reading one or two of his short as different as Beckett, Adamov and yourself, al- stories which Gallimard had just published. Opinion though influenced by different writers, and having was of course divided, but lonesco opened his book different backgrounds, nevertheless rejected the same and began with Oriflamme. An hour or so later the things: "Aristotelian" psychology, engagement, real- audience showed signs of impatience. Indeed, lo- ism, and the Boulevard play. nesco's reading was by no means artistic. As he pro- Eugene lonesco: I believe that this was due to an ceeded with his reading some students stamped their objective necessity, the necessity of opposition. When- feet and told him to stop. For a brief moment he ever there is novelty, there is opposition. For ex- tried to go on. Then, he gave up and shouted: ample, Romanticism opposed Classicism. After Ro- "Rhinoceroses! You are a bunch of rhinoceroses!" manticism, there was the Parnassian school which, Whereupon he haughtily walked off the stage. in some respects, was a return to Classicism-with I wondered if he ever had any intention of giv- some new elements of course-but also an opposi- ing a lecture. I noticed he had no notes at all. Did tion to Romanticism. Then came Symbolism which he-like the Dadaists and the Surrealists-plan a was a sort of return to Romanticism; then Natural- "spectacle-provocation"? This hypothesis was sup- ism which was a return to Realism, and so on. But ported by another fact. Before his performance, there may be reasons I am not aware of. You think Ionesco, who was sitting a few seats away from me, that writers are objectively determined. This is pos- was drinking a rather large glass of whiskey, perhaps sible. But again, in my own case, I don't clearly see trying to muster up enough courage to provoke the what the determining factors were. It is up to the public. critic to discover them. Anyhow, when I met Ionesco for the interview E.J.: In your own case, what were the reasons for printed below, I was astounded to see how nervous all these rejections? he was. His voice was shaking and when I asked E.I.: As far as I am concerned-and it's in this re- whether I could start the recording, he answered: spect that I come closest to Beckett-the existential "Not yet. In a little while." After chatting with me condition is unbearable. for ten minutes, he finally gave me the signal. E.J.: Could you develop this idea? Throughout the interview I noticed how uncomfort- E.I.: Well, you see what is going on around you. able the tape recorder seemed to make him feel. What I am going to say is trite. We come into Both this shyness and the kind of bravado the world crying, we end up loving the world and noted above seem to be inherent in lonesco's per- then we no longer want to leave it. We are trapped. sonality. As a matter of fact, they can also be found It is this mortal condition which is unsatisfying. Also, in several of his plays. In The Lesson, the Professor we would like to be ubiquitous. It is having limita- who is at first shy with his student ends up by raping tions that distresses me. and killing her; in Victims of Duty the Policeman is E.J.: From the start, your plays were unquestionably first described as "excessively timid," then "[he] original and yet, it seems to me, they exhibited some bangs his fist on the table," and gives repeated orders similarities with Beckett's and even Adamov's. to Choubert, ranging from "I'll teach you to be obe- E.I.: Quite so; I think The Chairs and Waiting for dient" to "Swallow! Chew! Swallow! Chew!" etc. Godot on the one hand, and Exit the King and Also in Rhinoceros, Berenger, who is a rather un- Endgame on the other, have common themes. Again, obtrusive character at the beginning of the play thisfi- means that we are historically determined. New nally exclaims: "Against everybody, I'll protect my- assertions, oppositions, counteroppositions, and so self! I am the last man, I will remain so right up forth, obey an historical determinism. until the end! I won't give in!" E.J.: When you first began writing plays, did you diacriticS /Summer 1973 This content downloaded from 128.239.195.115 on Mon, 08 May 2017 05:02:54 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 46 choose a situation or a character as the starting also many valid ones. For example, The Bald So- point, or did you let yourself be carried along by prano can be interpreted as a tragedy of language, a language? parody of theater, or a criticism of stereotyped be- E.I.: I let myself be carried along by language. I had havior. Besides, I had more personal reasons in writ- a very vague idea of what was to follow. Thus, for ing this play. I wanted to express the feeling I ex- Amedde I wanted a corpse to grow continually in an perience when I see people living senselessly. My apartment. It was around this central image that I characters became extraordinary by their very ba- conceived the play, as it is around the central image nality. I sort of stood back and looked at them the of chairs arriving en masse that I constructed The way I am apt to look at the world, with amazement. Chairs. And when I wrote Exit the King, I put my- This is probably why it was called an absurdist play. self in the position of someone to whom one would But again, there are several levels, several interpreta- say: "You are going to die tonight." That was all. tions possible. It is a parody but also a criticism of The action was set in motion from this starting point. Boulevard theater. You can make the same kind of As Val6ry pointed out, writing is a search, an ex- generalization with regard to any work. You can ploration. One discovers the answer on the way. find a Marxist interpretation, a psychoanalytic one, E.J.: For your first two plays, The Bald Soprano and a humanistic one, etc. The Lesson did you proceed in the same manner? E.J.: It is then a matter of polysemy, or to use Um- E.I.: You know, it's been such a long time since I berto Eco's expression, of "open works." Robbe- wrote these plays. ... For The Lesson I would Grillet, for example, sometimes writes novels with answer "yes." A professor kills his student in a com- several interpretations. Or else he uses a plot that ical way: that was the starting point. What I wanted leads the reader into a blind alley since there is no most of all was to write a play devoid of action. solution to the riddle posed. In this respect, Robbe- When it was performed for the first time, every- Grillet has somewhat modified the traditional detec- one, myself included, thought there was no action; tive story. but now we realize that there is action. I wanted it E.I.: Yes, The Erasers reads almost like a work by to follow a rising curve. A very simple structure, Simenon. As a matter of fact, I think Robbe-Grillet don't you think? does not hide his indebtedness to Simenon. E.J.: How would you characterize the structure of E.J.: Have you used similar techniques? your early plays? E.I.: To tell you the truth, I did not think of all this E.I.: I don't know. How would you? when I wrote my first play. I thought of it when I E.J.: First, there is a kind of circular structure, as in read the critics. Then I realized that it had to be The Bald Soprano. I wonder, however, whether this something other than what they were saying. What I was intentional. You had actually planned another think of my theatre contradicts what some critics ending: the actors would insult the spectators and said at the time when these plays were first per- pretend to shoot them.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theatre of the Absurd : Its Themes and Form
    THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: ITS THEMES AND FORM by LETITIA SKINNER DACE A. B., Sweet Briar College, 1963 A MASTER'S THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS Department of Speech KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 1967 Approved by: c40teA***u7fQU(( rfi" Major Professor il PREFACE Contemporary dramatic literature is often discussed with the aid of descriptive terms ending in "ism." Anthologies frequently arrange plays under such categories as expressionism, surrealism, realism, and naturalism. Critics use these designations to praise and to condemn, to denote style and to suggest content, to describe a consistent tone in an author's entire ouvre and to dissect diverse tendencies within a single play. Such labels should never be pasted to a play or cemented even to a single scene, since they may thus stifle the creative imagi- nation of the director, actor, or designer, discourage thorough analysis by the thoughtful viewer or reader, and distort the complex impact of the work by suppressing whatever subtleties may seem in conflict with the label. At their worst, these terms confine further investigation of a work of art, or even tempt the critic into a ludicrous attempt to squeeze and squash a rounded play into a square pigeon-hole. But, at their best, such terms help to elucidate theme and illuminate style. Recently the theatre public's attention has been called to a group of avant - garde plays whose philosophical propensities and dramatic conventions have been subsumed under the title "theatre of the absurd." This label describes the profoundly pessimistic world view of play- wrights whose work is frequently hilarious theatre, but who appear to despair at the futility and irrationality of life and the inevitability of death.
    [Show full text]
  • Hunger and Thirst & Other Plays
    Hunger and Thirst and Other Plays Other Works by Eugene Ionesco Amedee, The New Tenant, Victims of Duty The Bald Soprano Exit the King Fragments of a journal Four Plays The Killer and Other Plays Notes and Counter Notes Rhinoceros and Other Plays A Stroll in the Air, Frenzy for Two, or More Eugene Ionesco HUNGER AND THIRST and other plays Translated from the French by Donald Watson GI�OVE PI�ESS, II\:C. :'\E\\' YOI�K Theu trar1slatio11S CO/J)' Tighted © 1968 In• Calder all(/ Royars, Ltd. Hrm{!.n a11d Thirst was originally published as La Soif et la Faim ropnigiH ® •!)fiG hl· Editions Galliman!. Paris. The Pic· ttne, Auger, and Salutations were originally publishf'd as Le Tableau, /.a Co/he, Les .\alutatiom copyright © 1!)63 by Edi· tions l.allimarcl, Paris All R ights Resewed l.ibrary of Co11g1·e.u Catalog Card Number: 73-79095 First Printing, 1969 CAl;rJO)';:h T rse plays are full)' protected, in whole, in part or iu any form uuder the copyright laws of thl' United States of America, the Rritis/1 Empire including the Dominion of Can­ ada, a11d all other countries of the Cop)'right Union, and are sul>ject to royalty. All rights, incl11ding professional, amateur, motion picture, radio, teler>ision, recitation, public rradillfi, and all\' m eth od of photographic reproduction, are strictly resenwl. For /JTOfessiorral rightl all inquiries should l>e addre.Hed to !.rope Prrss, Inc., Ro Unir>ersity Place, New York, X.l'. 1ooo;. For amateur and stock rights all inquiries should be adrlre.«ed to Samuel French, Inc., 25 West 45th Street, Xew York, .V.Y.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theatre of the Absurd
    The Theatre of the Absurd /RUHGDQD$'Ă6&Ă/,ğEI1 Abstract: The theatre of the absurd is as old as the notion of dramatic play, only it was not very explicit until the nineteenth century, because its features did not stand out in the classical theatre. The theatre of the absurd is the expression of the search of the self, of the faith, of the spirit. It is said that once the ancient forms of art lose their validity, new mechanisms must be found. The theatre of the absurd tries to convince the world regarding the reality of its condition. In his theatre, Ionescu does not hide his mechanisms, but makes them as obvious as possible. The way in which Ionescu's concepts are used in a dramatic form closely follows the structures established for each play. The playwright is constantly disturbed by mortality, which is the ultimate paradox of an irrational existence. The exaggerations, the paradox, the contradictions, the crisis of the language, the surreal images, they are all attached to death in grotesque distortions. Key-words: Eugen Ionesco; the theater of the absurd; mechanisms; the theme of death. 1. Introduction in Eugen Ionesco and the Theatre of the Absurd A very interesting fact is that the Theatre of the Absurd is as old as the notion of dramatic play, only it was not very explicit until the 19th century, because its features did not stand out LQWKHFODVVLFDOWKHDWUH$FFRUGLQJWR0DUWLQ(VVOLQ¶VDQDO\VLVLQThe Theatre of the Absurd, it is a mixture of peculiar features of playwriting. The pure or abstract scenic effects include anti-literary attitudes.
    [Show full text]
  • Eugène Ionesco Through the 20Th Century
    Cultural and Linguistic Communication HETEROTOPIAS DISTURB: EUGÈNE IONESCO THROUGH THE 20TH CENTURY María Ángeles GRANDE ROSALES1 1. Prof., PhD, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, Dept. of General Linguistics and Literary Theory, University of Granada, Spain Corresponding author: [email protected] Not only in the theatre, but there also, the 20th Rhinoceros (1959), A Stroll in the Air (1962), Exit century was the century of the disappearance of the King (1962), Hunger and Thirst (1966), Jack, or space and of time transfigured by massacre. The Submission (1970), Macbett (1972), Ce Scientific progress did not produce moral Formidable Bordel (1973), The Man with the Luggage progress. Hiroshima, Auschwitz, Nazism, the (1975), or Journey Among the Dead (1980), also the totalitarianisms, Vietnam present themselves as novel The Hermit (1973), the autobiographical the incontrovertible historical evidence. In the diaries Fragments of a Journal (1967) and Present words of Angelica Liddell: Past, Past Present (1968), and various collections El tiempo ya no ubica las acciones humanas of essays, aesthetic reflections, newspaper sino la descomposición. Un minuto no es articles, marginal notes etc. Born to a Rumanian tiempo, es espacio, espacio desmoronado. father and French mother, he moved to Paris Sería como decir este avión tarda en llegar aged one and lived in France until 1922, when he tres hospitales bombardeados. Sería como was reclaimed by his father and returned to decir un minuto son tres campos de Rumania, where he would continue his exterminio. La definición de sufrimiento secondary and higher education. Later he usurpa la definición del espacio y del tiempo achieved the post of cultural attaché of the (…) La realidad destruida hace que se recurra Rumanian delegation of Vichy, definitively a la metáfora como generadora de realidades establishing himself in France, where he nuevas.
    [Show full text]
  • Eugene Ionesco RHINOCEROS
    Eugene Ionesco RHINOCEROS ARAVIND R NAIR, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF ENGLISH,SH COLLEGE, THEVARA EUGENE IONESCO 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994 • Romanian, wrote in French • Part of the French Avant Garde Theatre • About the insignificance of human existence • "Walking in summer sunshine in a white-washed provincial village under an intense blue sky, [Ionesco] was profoundly altered by the light." • An early childhood transcendental experience • he saw that the real world in comparison was full of decay, corruption and meaningless repetitive action. Death is inevitable. • Works reveal a disgust for the tangible world • The feeling that a better world lies just beyond this one. • Married Rodica Burileanu in 1936. • Wrote unconventional children’s stories for his kids. • Lived in France during the second world war. • Awards and recognition: • Member of the French Academy, 1970 • Prix Italia, 1963. • Authors Theatre Prize, 1966 LITERARY CAREER Debuted as a critic and poet Wrote satirical works: The Hugoliade mocking Victor Hugo First play in 1948: The Bald Soprano One act nonsense play Based on Ionesco’s attempt to learn English The clichés and truisms of language learning Was rather unsuccessful until Jean Anouilh and others promoted it EARLY WORKS Jack or the Submission.1950 The Lesson. 1950 The Chairs. 1952 The New Tenant.1953 The Anti-Play: absurdist, alienation, impossibility of communication, against conformism of the bourgeoisie and the theatre. An atmosphere where language breaks down into meaninglessness. FULL LENGTH PLAYS A Stroll in the Air The Killer. 1959 Rhinoceros Exit the King. 1962 The character ‘Berenger’ – an autobiographical figure. Features in many of Ionesco’s plays including Rhinoceros.
    [Show full text]
  • Title of Thesis Or Dissertation, Worded
    A PAINTER OF THE ABSURD: READING THROUGH AND BEYOND EUGÈNE IONESCO’S HUMANISM by ANA-MARIA M’ENESTI A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Romance Languages and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2014 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Ana-Maria M’Enesti Title: A Painter of the Absurd: Reading Through and Beyond Eugène Ionesco’s Humanism This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Romance Languages by: Alexandre Albert-Galtier Chairperson Karen McPherson Core Member Massimo Lollini Core Member John Schmor Institutional Representative and J. Andrew Berglund Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2014 ii © 2014 Ana-Maria M’Enesti iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Ana-Maria M’Enesti Doctor of Philosophy Department of Romance Languages December 2014 Title: A Painter of the Absurd: Reading Through and Beyond Eugène Ionesco’s Humanism The Theatre of the Absurd often has been considered the reflection of a deconstructionist gesture, a negation of the existent theatrical norms, therefore an end in itself without any prospect of possible alternatives or remedies. While this may be partially true, the entropy inherent to the absurd does not adhere to a mechanically formal posture; rather, the “purposeless wandering”, in Eugène Ionesco’s case, points, through humor (Ce formidable bordel), toward a longing for meaning, deeply rooted in the human being. This very longing is the crux of Ionesco’s humanism.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bald Soprano and the Chairs Two One-Act Plays by the Master of Absurdism
    PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release Friday, October 30, 2009 CONTACT: Patrick Finlon, Marketing Director 315-443-2636 or [email protected] Syracuse University Department of Drama presents: The Bald Soprano and The Chairs Two One-Act Plays by the Master of Absurdism Written by Eugene Inoesco Directed by Rodney Hudson ARTHUR STORCH THEATRE at SYRACUSE STAGE Opens: November 13 Closes: November 22 (Syracuse, NY)— These master works from theatre of absurd soar to heights of the ridiculous with word-twisting, innovative comedy. Eugene Ionesco is a giant of 20th century playwriting who took all the conventions of the stage and turned them upside down to offer stunning perspectives on theatre and the world it reflects. With a strong sense of the outrageous, Ionesco reminds us that, "The human drama is as absurd as it is painful." Presented by the Department of Drama in The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) at Syracuse University, The Bald Soprano and The Chairs run November 13-22. Themes and content recommended for ages 16 and up. For tickets, call 315-443-3275 or visit www.vpa.syr.edu/drama. Both The Bald Soprano and The Chairs are considered standards in what has been coined as Theatre of the Absurd. First popular in the 1950s and 1960s, Absurdism reflects a philosophy presented by Albert Camus—that the human condition is basically meaningless, and that explaining the world in a logical manner is not possible. In absurdist plays, there is a comical take on serious topics—death, alienation, and evil—in an effort to understand them better.
    [Show full text]
  • THE BALD SOPRANO” October 23 – November 22, 2009
    media contact: erica lewis-finein brightbutterfly pr brightbutterfly[at]hotmail.com CUTTING BALL THEATER OPENS 10 TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON WITH IONESCO’S ABSURDIST MASTERPIECE “THE BALD SOPRANO” October 23 – November 22, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO (August 30, 2009) – San Francisco’s cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater opens its 10 th season with Eugène Ionesco’s comic masterpiece THE BALD SOPRANO , in a new translation by Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose . This hysterically funny play is the perfect follow up to last season’s hit production of Ionecso’s Victims of Duty , which garnered a Bay Area Critics Circle award for Best Production. Featuring Paige Rogers , David Sinaiko , Caitlyn Louchard , Donell Hill , Derek Fischer , and Anjali Vashi with direction by Rob Melrose , THE BALD SOPRANO plays October 23 through November 22 (Press opening: October 29 ) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at Exit on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($15-30) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006 . In THE BALD SOPRANO , Mr. and Mrs. Smith invite Mr. and Mrs. Martin over for a cheerful dinner. Plans for a sedate evening soon give way to hilarious chaos as polite conversation turns to confusion and the two couples engage in an escalating battle of linguistic acrobatics. Simultaneously comic and profound, THE BALD SOPRANO , about which The New York Times recently said, “The play has not aged. One might even suggest that we have caught up with [it],” is a play that breaks all the rules. While trying to learn English, Ionesco noticed the absurdity of the dialogues between the husband and wife in the textbook he was studying - she would inform him that they live in London, that they have three children, that the ceiling is above them and the floor is below them, all things he already knew perfectly well.
    [Show full text]
  • Evam Absurd: Badal Sircar and the Matrix of Absurdism
    Evam Absurd: Badal Sircar and the Matrix of Absurdism Tapu Biswas Abstract Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot was originally written in French as En attendant Godot in Paris between 9th October 1948 and 29th January 1949, perhaps as much as a response to the changing socio-political climate in post-World War II France as a consequence of the philosophical and artistic ferments of the time. Somewhat similarly, Badal Sircar’s Evam Indrajit was born in, and out of, a time of intellectual, political and cultural flux. Originally written in London in the form of a draft poem in 1957, the play was produced in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1963. Only ten years then separated the staging of the two plays, since Beckett’s play had been first enacted on stage in 1953. If Beckett’s pen had moved in a current of change and unrest, Sircar’s too had been written when Indian, and especially Bengali society and culture, were in the throes of a radical conversion. Drawing upon Martin Esslin’s monumental work Theatre of the Absurd to define the matrix of absurdism, I have in this paper tried to locate the absurdism of Badal Sircar in Evam Indrajit with reference to the critical envisioning of western theoreticians like Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus et al, and occasionally argued against Indian critics like Rustom Barucha, Manujendra Kundu and Subhendu Sarkar who would deny Badal Sircar the status of being an absurdist. Keywords: waiting for Godot, Evam Indrajit, absurd, imperialism, partition, communism, existentialism. Journal_ Volume 14, 2021_ Biswas 390 It is not always remembered that Samuel Beckett wrote his masterpiece Waiting for th th Godot in Paris between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949, that is, a little over four years after the liberation of the city from the German forces which had taken place th on 25 August 1944.
    [Show full text]
  • A Director's Approach to Ionesco's Rhinoceros Chad Landon Kennedy
    ABSTRACT Unpacking the Individual: A Director’s Approach to Ionesco’s Rhinoceros Chad Landon Kennedy, M.F.A. Chairperson: Stan Denman, Ph.D. In 1959, French-Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco debuted his play, Rhinoceros, and the theatergoing world was captivated by the curious image of people turning into pachyderms. This fable about herd mentality and being comfortable in one’s own skin is continually timely, as humans and rhinos often pit people against the pack. While critics have pointed to historic inspirations for the script for years, the play is more effective as an individual exploration of what it means to be human. Like much of Ionesco’s work, it reveals a strong concern for individualism and upholding human dignity. This thesis examines the production process that brought Rhinoceros to the Baylor University stage in December 2019 for a weeklong run. It explores the playwright’s life and work, as well as historical productions of the play, before turning attention to the directorial analysis of the script. Directing concepts and production designs are then outlined to trace the development of the play from rehearsals through performances to highlight lessons learned throughout the collaborative process. Unpacking the Individual: A Director's Approach to Ionesco's Rhinoceros by Chad Landon Kennedy, B.A., B.S., M.A. A Thesis Approved by the Department of Theatre Arts DeAnna Toten Beard, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee Stan Denman, Ph.D., Chairperson David Jortner, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Eugène Ionesco and Norman Frederick Simpson : Satiric And
    in the Deyarhent of Englisn APPROVAL Nue: David George Hadcock Anido Degree: Master of Arts Title of Thesis: ~u$ne Ionesco md 3Jormar. Frederick Simpson: Satiric and Idealia~icAspects of the Theatre of the Absurd in France and Britain Exainining Comnit tee : ---- 4 (professor Serry ZasloveJ Scnior ~upervisor) -- -..-..- - (Mrs. A'ndrea Exmizing Co - (Dr. Hari shar~na)-,_-I- -- - - - hxterr~alExaminer (Assistac~PTG~ES.~~) (Departrqent of Tolltical Scienre, Sociology an6 Anthropology) To my parents. I wish to acknowledge the cotlsidera'cle asslstance oil Dr. ~\!slcolniPzge in the preparaticn of the bibliogra~hy;cf ivlrs. Andrea Lekwitz fw the long houm spent in reading the meLxscri~L,;or' Dr. J. Z.aslove fir his instructive ad- ice arA sugges~ionsTor new directions ; of Xiss K~ze;LJr ighr for her interest in this venture and helpfui criticisw; and of Yiss Ver~a Kazakoff for her kinciness in tjpiag he firal draft. ABS'fPACr Qne of the m~stsignificant directions of the contemp~rarytheatre has come to be ct&l.ed %he Theatre of the Absurd, The purpose of this thesis is to identify the major aspect of "absurdism" (social satire) as It can be isolated in the work of ~u&e lonesco, rrlting in France, and Dorman Frederick Simpson, w~ltlng_in England, Beyond the sati~_ic elements the thesis will also illustrate how Ionesco has achieved a significant metaphysical level in his drama which presumes a personal faith in the validity of human existence and endeavour. Ionesco is a prolific writer having written over twenty plays, rtxI10 ecrlpts (~esalon de 1'- automobile)- , television scripts (~eJeune-- - Homme % ~arier),- -- scenarios (~'0eufA - ~ur), and a ballet (Apprendre- & archer).- Tn addition, the playwright has been much concerned ~5th presenting his ideas about theatre and his personal life, The two most important Jownals of Ionesco are Notes-- and --.
    [Show full text]
  • The Chairs by Eugène Ionesco Adapted by Owen Mccafferty
    The Chairs By Eugène Ionesco Adapted by Owen McCafferty Tinderbox Theatre Company RESOURCE PACK The Chairs Resource Pack February 2003 Resource pack contents Page • Introduction 3 • Background to the theatre of the absurd 4 • Writers of the absurd 5 • Relevance to today 7 • The absurd century: a chronology 9 • Producing a literal translation of The Chairs by Kerry Goyer 19 • French extract 20 • Extract from Kerry Goyer’s literal translation of The Chairs 22 • Extract from Owen McCafferty’s adaptation of The Chairs 24 • Discussion with Owen McCafferty 26 • Designing The Chairs by Stuart Marshall 29 • Ionesco vs Tynan 33 • Plays/Playwrights associated with the ‘absurd’ 35 • Programme Bibliography / Further Reading / Web-sites 37 2 The Chairs Resource Pack Introduction This resource pack is designed to compliment the pre-show workshop accompanying the Tinderbox Theatre Company staging of The Chairs by Eugène Ionesco, in a new adaptation by Owen McCafferty. These resources will provide further background information on many aspects of the production. Teachers or group leaders are asked not to distribute this document in it’s entirety to individuals, think of the trees, but rather use appropriate sections. If you have any comments about the contents of this resource please call John McCann at the Tinderbox office on 02890 439313. 3 The Chairs Resource Pack BACKGROUND: THEATRE OF THE ABSURD Ionesco’s play The Chairs is one of the plays central to what is called the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. The play’s premise certainly lives up to the genre’s ‘absurd’ tag. An old married couple are 93 years old and married for 76 of these years.
    [Show full text]