Ionesco, Eugène

(1909-1994)

   dramatic author

   Born in slatina, Romania, to a Romanian father and a French mother, Eugène ionesco lived in France until the age of 13. He moved to Romania, where he was a professor of French, then in 1938, returned to reside in France permanently. His first play La Cantatrice chauve (The Bald Soprano; 1950), a satire of bourgeois society that inspired the Theater of the Absurd movement, was followed by Les Chaises (The Chairs; 1952), Victimes du devoir (1953), and Amédée ou Comment s'en débarrasser (1954). His understanding of human suffering (Tueur sans gages, 1959), his sense of ideology (Rhinocéros, 1958), and death (Le Roi se meurt, 1962), is apparent in his works. in his second period of writing, ionesco produced Le Piéton de l'air (1963), La Soif et la Faim (1966), and Jeux de massacre (1970). He wrote a novel, Le Solitaire (1973), and a screenplay (La Vase, 1972). His plays reflect the absurdity of life, the human condition, and the universe. ionesco was elected to the Académie Française in 1970.