Eugéne Ionesco [antikvár]

The fi ve years from 1956 to 1961 witnessed the spectacular rise to world renown of an almost unknown playwright who, until 1956, had only been performed in small theaters before limited audiences. In that year a revival of Ionesco's The Chairs suddenly attracted attention, receiving high praise from eminent men of letters, including Jean Anouilh. In an article in Le Figaro Anouilh claimed that it was a classical work and superior to Strindberg. Less than five years later, Ionesco was being performed in a French national theater before large audiences. He was acclaimed throughout Europe and invited to speak in Finland and America. Ionesco has had, and continues to have, many detractors, for he is a controversial figure. Of his significance, however, there can be no doubt, for his voice, while strikingly originál in its expression, speaks for a large segment of thinking people today, a voice of freedom in a world of conformity. Ionesco's contribution to world dramaturgy has been both in subject and in form. Born in Slatina, Rumania, in 1912 of a Rumanian father and French mother, Eugéne Ionesco spent his formative years in Francé. It was not until 1925, when he was thirteen, that he returned to Rumania and learned the Rumanian language. After studies at the University of Bucharest he became a teacher of French. At the same time he was writing poetry and criticism. In 1939 he returned to Francé, where he has lived ever since, with his wife and a daughter born in 1944.