Who asked this question: "It is especially because of Death that I say 'Why' to Fear"? Who is it that confessed: "I did not completely burn my bridges with God"? Who was belittled, made fun of, criticized and attacked before being recognized as one of the most significant playwrights of our century? Who suffered all of this because he dared to put into writing our own time's pathetic anxiety of existence--an "unexplainable and worrisome joke"?
The answer to these questions: Eugene Ionesco! This small man with tired eyelids, a frank smile, a resigned voice was constantly astonished--and philosophical--about the directions existence took him. All his work revolves around a profound mistrust of reality, around his inability to share in the passions and illusions that torment humanity.
The contributions of the exiled Rumanian on the Parisian scene go back to May 16, 1950. That evening, at the Théâtre des Noctambules, his first play, La Cantatrice Chauve, premieres. Critics of the time were merciless and take direct aim at the author. This unsympathetic reaction turns out to be the first of many salvos sent Ionesco's way, his following plays provoking incomprehension and hostility.
However, legions of admirers refute his critics: the message from this Frenchman from Romania is coming through loud and clear. They understand that a man and a woman need no longer support the yoke of marriage, an idea which produces Amédée ou comment s’en débarrasser. These fans further comprehend that a young person in love dare not marry the girl he loves because of fear of a family feud, which serves a basis for Jacques ou la Soumission. Finally, they understand The Chairs in which two abandoned elderly people organize a reception and painfully await guests who will never come. The same is true for The Lesson, in which a toothache generates collective madness, leading to dictatorship and tyranny.
All the action of The Lesson rests on the calculated swing of two contrary movements. It involves two characters: a timid, calm and polished professor opposite a dynamic pupil with a great quickness of mind. The situation will transform quickly: the initial temerity of the pupil becomes morbid tenderness, the timidity of the professor leads to aggressiveness and assassination. Here, language is initially regulated but gradually loses its points of reference, and therefore its meaning. The link between words and the world they pretend to describe is lost. "Philology leads to the crime," declares the maid who fails to assuage the professor in spite of her successive interventions. The outburst that follows, in its extreme excess, seems the product of a dream. Language, which has regained its magical powers, escapes man’s power.
"Life flees like the water of a river runs," sighs Ionesco. With irony, derision and compassion, the author reveals humanity's obsession for he calls "the passage"--that is to say the fear of death. "By growing old, by accustoming myself to the world, I more deeply felt the influence of evil, the enigma of evil: the fundamental enigma." How is it possible to survive so many torments? Eugene Ionesco found his way: " Humour, which is despair's form of courtesy."
Translation from the original French text by Andrew Wallis
