La cantante calva
Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano” (1950) is a dominating play central to the Theatre of the Absurd, its “dreamlike symphony of nonsensical speech and disjointed associations expose how hopeless human communication is”. The ‘nonsensical speech’ and ‘disjointed associations’ are key elements of the Theatre of the absurd. Most of the dialogue in Ionesco’s play has little meaning and frequently there is outright gibberish in the actors’ speeches. The satire and nonsensical discourse present throughout Ionesco’s text serves his purpose in presenting how nonsensical mundane life can be. Ionesco’s engagement with Existentialism is also characteristic of Absurdist Theatre is also distinct in the utilisation of the seemingly ridiculous English language and society’s unwillingness to communicate with each other . Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano” encompasses mankind’s inability to engage in communication in a purposeless world, reiterating the influence of Existentialism on Absurdist Fiction and how this presents in texts within the Theatre of the Absurd literary genre.