About
Eugène Ionesco, born Eugen Dimitri Ionescu in Romania, is a Romanian-French playwright and writer. He is considered, along with Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet, one of the founders of the Theatre of the Absurd. His first play, The Bald Soprano, premiered in 1950, marked the beginning of a body of work that questions the absurdity of the human condition through deconstructed language. His major plays, such as Rhinoceros, a parable about totalitarianism, earned him international recognition. Elected to the Académie française in 1970, he also wrote essays and memoirs.
* 1909-11-26 — † 1994-03-28
Major works
- La Cantatrice chauve (1950)play
- La Leçon (1951)play
- Les Chaises (1952)play
- Rhinocéros (1959)play
- Le Roi se meurt (1962)play
Key milestones
- 1950First performance of The Bald Soprano at the Théâtre des Noctambules in Paris.
- 1970Elected to the Académie française, seat 6.
- 1990Publication of his complete theater in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, a rare honor during his lifetime.
Themes
Absurdity of the human conditionConformism and totalitarianismLanguage and communicationDeath and finitudeSolitude and alienation
Sources: icr.ro · britannica.com · npg.org.uk