Rhinoceros(Trans. Derek Prouse);the Chairs: A Tragic Farce; the Lesson:A Comic Drama(Both Trans. Donald Watson) (Penguin twentieth century classics) - Softcover

Ionesco, Eugene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140181040 ISBN 13: 9780140181043

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1989

Synopsis

These three great plays by one of the founding fathers of the theatre of the absurd, are alive and kicking with tragedy and humour, bleakness and farce. In Rhinoceros we are shown the innate brutality of people as everyone, except for Berenger, turn into clumsy, unthinking rhinoceroses. The Chairs depicts the futile struggle of two old people to convey the meaning of life to the rest of humanity, while The Lesson is a chilling, but anarchically funny drama of verbal domination. In these three 'antiplays' dream, nonsense and fantasy combine to create an unsettling, bizarre view of society.

About this title

About the Author:

Eugene Ionesco's first one-act "antiplay," The Bald Soprano, inspired a revolution in dramatic techniques and helped inaugurate the Theatre of the Absurd. He followed it with other one-act plays in which illogical events create an atmosphere both comic and grotesque, including The Lesson. His most popular full-length play was Rhinoceros. He was elected to the Academie Francaise in 1970.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0140181040
• ISBN 13: 9780140181043
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224