The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco

Wildly funny -The Sunday Independent

Hilarious stuff, affirmative and moving - Irish Theatre Magazine  

Q. What happens when a Romanian playwright decides to learn English from a book?  

A. The Bald Soprano!

Described variously as a hair- raising theatrical thrill, wildly funny and excellent, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company’s production of Ionesco’s classic absurd drama illuminates the plays themes with intelligence and wit. In a stylish production, six characters explore the banality of language, politeness and social customs as discovered by the then 40 yar old Ionesco as he began to learn English from a book.

As he repeated to memory the lines from his English primer Ionesco became acutely aware of the absurdity of conversational language use. This became the basis on which he began to examine the inanity of conversation, where meaningful substance is replaced by hollow platitude, where communication itself is the greatest barrier to understanding. Premiered in Paris in 1950 The Bald Soprano is largely credited with having inaugurated the Theatre of The Absurd, a form in which many playwrights, amongst them Samuel Beckett, were to forge their reputations.

Eugene Ionesco was born in Romania in 1909 and taken to France as an infant. He returned to Romania in 1925. After obtaining a degree in French at the University of Bucharest, he worked for a doctorate in Paris (1939), which, after 1945, he made his home.

The Bald Soprano has played in Paris virtually without a break since its first performance in 1950. It is one 20th century theatres most acute examinations of modern life and though written over 50 years ago remains relevant and comical today.

In The Bald Soprano Ionesco uses language to great comic effect by parodying conventional speech. Absurdist Theatre is about more than mere words however and unlike conventional theatre where language is the main means of communication, absurdist plays communicate atmosphere not only through words but also through movement, sound and lighting. The mixed pattern of parodied language, sound, movement and light presented in The Bald Soprano lends itself to some marvellously comic moments. Indeed, it is worth noting that absurdist theatre drew inspiration from the tradition of verbal nonsense as seen in early sound films of Laurel & Hardy and WC Fields. Ionesco himself found the work of S.J.Perelman who wrote dialogue for The Marx Brothers films a great inspiration for his own work.

“Illustrates the importance of originality and spontaneity in theatrical performance” - The Irish Times