Event

THE CHAIRS by Eugene Ionesco

*Last professionally performed in Dallas in 1962*

“The overall effect is of a world stripped of God, meaning and even memory. And that's entertainment? Well, yes, and entertainment of an exceptionally high order…Ionesco…made a science of pumping theatrical fizz into nihilism, translating the cockeyed worldview of slapstick into cosmic terms…This verbal softshoe, which sounds familiar even at its most grotesque and illogical, is enacted against a setting that appears to be teetering on the very edge of a worn-out world.” –The New York Times

The Play: A rarely performed absurdist play of the first order by a master innovator of the genre. In a house on an island a very old couple pass their time with private games and half-remembered stories. With brilliant eccentricity, Ionesco's 'tragic farce' combines a comic portrait of human folly with a magical experiment in theatrical possibilities. Shakespeare Dallas Artistic Director Raphael Parry and KDT Company Member Rhonda Boutte will make their first-ever appearance onstage together.

The Playwright: The Romanian-born Eugè;ne Ionesco, b. Nov. 26, 1912 [d. 1994], is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theater of the Absurd. Plays include: THE BALD SOPRANO, THE LESSON, THE CHAIRS, RHINOCEROS, THE KILLER, EXIT THE KING, A STROLL IN THE AIR, HUNGER AND THIRST and JOURNEYS AMONG THE DEAD. Elected a member of the Academie Francaise in 1970, Ionesco has also published theoretical writings, Notes and Counternotes; Fragments of a Journal; and a novel, Le Solitaire, on which his 1971 film La Vase (with Ionesco playing the lead) was based.