Ionesco
Publisher
:
Flammarion
Parution date
:
2009
EAN
:
9782081219915
Number of pages
:
617
Description
The latest biography of Eugène Ionesco, the master of the theater of the absurd, does justice to its subject.
—Le Magazine Littéraire
A remarkable biography.
—Le Monde
A true masterpiece.
—Fréquence Protestante
French-Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco was one of the most influential and most played dramatists of the twentieth century. His “theater of the absurd,” including The Bald Soprano and Rhinoceros, two plays ridiculing the banal and underscoring the insignificance of human existence, continue to be performed throughout the world. Despite this acclaim, there is no authoritative treatment of his work in English; only his personal memoir—Present Past, Past Present—is available in the United States. André Le Gall fills the void with an arresting biography that combines realism and imagination in a form that Ionesco would have appreciated.
The challenge in writing a biography of Eugène Ionesco includes discerning and relating the meanings of his work—and discussing his equally opaque life choices. To clarify these issues, Le Gall stages imaginary dialogues with Ionesco using events, anecdotes, and even dreams as related in his diaries. These dialogues are juxtaposed with information gleaned from Le Gall’s extensive research in archives and interviews with contemporaries, compatriots, and friends. The result is the fullest possible portrait of Ionesco, a man equally concerned with the staging of his plays and the staging of his life.
By the time the 85-year-old Ionesco died in Paris in 1994, his plays were some of the most performed of the twentieth century. He was born in Romania in 1909, but his mother was French and some of his ancestors were Jewish. He was in France in 1939 when the war started, and he remained there, with his family, until the liberation. Although Ionesco was always extremely cautious in discussing his years under Nazi occupation, Le Gall reports that he worked for the Vichy government as a literary attaché. Ionesco later justified his involvement with the regime by saying, “I escaped as a fugitive in a guard’s uniform.” In the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Ionesco and other contemporary writers, including Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Arthur Adamov, began the new wave in French theater known today as “le théâtre de l’absurde.” A mystic disguised as a Parisian socialite, a juggler of words through both bursts of creative energy and periods of deep depression, Ionesco often let his stage characters embody his own questioning. Unveiling the dueling sides of his larger-than-life personality, Ionesco is a long overdue and revelatory portrait of this revolutionary playwright.
Author
André Le Gall : André Le Gall has produced numerous dramatic works and studies on contemporary theater. He has written biographies of other major playwrights, including Corneille, Pascal, and Racine, all published in France by Flammarion.
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