Bald Soprano
The playwright, Eugene Ionesco's , first play, La Cantatrice Chauve translated into The Bald Soprano in 1956 is considered to have founded the movement known as the theatre of the absurd and Ionesco himself has often been labelled the father of 'absurdities.' This particular play, which has upset all conventions, habits and destroyed theatre itself has often been termed an anti-play, because it attacked and ridiculed all conventions of drama, the theatre, logic, language as well as life. Eugene Ionesco constructed this play out of nonsensical sentences, which are used to portray the irrelevance of the daily life led by the British bourgeois society who are deeply rooted in their meaningless lives. All absurdist playwrights like Ionesco often ignored the logical structures of traditional dramatical theatre when writing their plays, which explains why Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, unlike other usual and non-absurdist plays, is basically about nothing. The characters portrayed, only capable of speaking in banal phrases and cliches are unable to communicate with each other. Lacking deep emotion or feeling of any kind, they often find themselves engaged in pointless chatter without ever really
In addition to interchangeable character and lack of structure, the style of this play which distinguishes it from others and deems it as an absurd anti-play is the little dramatic action which is included. The entire play seems to take place in the Smith's living room over a short period of time, mostly consisting of inane dialogue shared between the character. Furthermore, even the notion of time is irrelevant, 'the clock strikes as much as it likes' (pg.19) This also adds to the idea that nothing, including time is important nor meaningful. Without any consequential action, or relevant climactic point or even use of suspense, the whole plot is eliminated from the play. The play contains no beginning, middle or end. The author basically throws a couple into a room from the onset of the work and portrays them as a typical English family having an interesting dinner conversation, which in reality holds little meaning or significance-'the oil from the grocer...I eat better than you this evening. Why is that...?' (pg.9) Mrs. Smith's brainless chattering is full of mundane trivialities and this portrays the surreal relationship between her husband and herself. This notion of a surreal relationship is also dominant in the Martin's who, after 30 years of a 'bliss
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Approximate Word count = 859
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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