La cantante calva
Ionesco began his theatre career later in life; he did not write his first play until 1948 ("La Cantatrice chauve", first performed in 1950 with the English title "The Bald Soprano"). At the age of 40, he decided to learn English using the Assimil method, conscientiously copying whole sentences in order to memorize them. Re-reading them, he began to feel that he was not learning English, rather he was discovering some astonishing truths such as the fact that there are seven days in a week, that the ceiling is up and the floor is down; things which he already knew, but which suddenly struck him as being as stupefying as they were indisputably true.