Eugene Ionesco

thumb|right|335 pxEugène Ionesco (26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian playwright who wrote mostly in French, and one of the foremost figures of the French Avant-garde theatre. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict the solitude and insignificance of human existence in a tangible way.
== Tossup Questions ==
# This writer created a king torn between life and death as argued by his wives Marie and Marguerite, who acts as midwife to a birth process when the king accepts his death. That character from Exit the King shares his name with another of this writer's characters who shouts, "I'm not capitulating!". In a play by this man, after the Fire Chief leaves, the Smiths and the Martins' dinner devolves into non-sequiturs. This playwright imagined fascism as an epidemic of transformations into a certain horned animal that nearly overwhelms Berenger. For 10 points, name this Romanian Absurdist playwright of The Bald Soprano and Rhinoceros.
# One of this author's plays is set in a "radiant city" home to a man who shows people a "picture of the colonel" before murdering them. In another of his works, a deaf-mute orator arrives and the Old Man and Woman drown themselves after an invisible emperor shows up. One play by this author of The Killer and The (*) Chairs sees Mrs. Smith note that she always wears her hair in the same style after the fire chief makes a remark about the title singer. In this author's most famous play, Mr. Boeuf turns into the title animal while talking with Berenger. For ten points, identify this absurdist French-Romanian author of The Bald Soprano and Rhinoceros.
# In one of this author's plays, the protagonist meets in a cafe with his friend Jean, who soon grows sick and has a bump appear on his forehead. In another of this author's plays, several characters discuss the death of Bobby Watson reported in the paper, and that play ends with non-sequiturs after the Fire Chief's exit. Several of this author's plays, such as A Stroll in the Air and Exit the King, feature a recurring character who cries "I will not capitulate!" at the end of a play in which all his friends have morphed into the title animal. Berenger is a creation of, for 10 points, what Romanian playwright of Rhinoceros and The Bald Soprano?
# This author wrote a volume of critical essays, interspersed with journalistic "intermezzos" in which he criticized the conservatism of writers in his home country. The protagonist of one play by this author suddenly exclaims "I adore hashed brown potatoes!" and is introduced to the multiple-nosed Roberta and her younger sister Roberta II. This author of Nu wrote up a long conversation in which every attempt to discern the ideology of the title character is met with a chuckle; that character uses a "picture of a colonel" to lure Dany to her death in a bright subsection of a metropolis known as the Radiant City. This author wrote a cycle of plays about Jack as well as The Killer, which introduces a character who is spared the fate of Dudard and Daisy in his most famous work. For 10 points, name this Absurdist playwright who wrote about Berenger in Rhinoceros and hailed from Romania.
# This author created a character who tells an "experimental fable" about a dog and a cow, the former of which thinks it is an elephant. That character appears in a play by this man whose stage directions calls for an "English pipe," "English slippers," "English salad," etc. before its main characters discuss the "handsomest corpse in Britain," Bobby Watson. The Orator scribbles nonsense words on a blackboard at the end of another work by this author in which the Old Man and Old Woman greet invisible guests. The Martins discover that they sleep in the same bed when they go to visit the Smiths in another work by this man. For 10 points, name this Romanian born playwright that wrote the absurdist plays The Chairs and The Bald Soprano.