EUGENE IONESCO
Eugene Ionesco was born in Slatina, Romania in 1912 to a Romanian father and a French
mother. Much of his childhood was spent in Paris before he returned to Romania in 1925
where he studied at the University of Bucharest.
Ionesco married in 1936 and then returned to France two years after. He published
poetry and cricticism before starting to write plays in 1948 when he was learning English.
His plays include:
La Catatrice Chauve/The Bald Prima Donna - 1950
La Lecon/The Lesson - 1951
Rhinoceros - 1958
Le Roi Se Meurt/Exit The King - 1961
The last two of these both feature the character Berenger.
Eugene Ionesco's play made him one of the exponents of the
Theatre of the Absurd. During his life Ionesco won several major international awards
and is ackowledged as one of the most important figures in the history of avant garde
theatre. He died in March 1994.
Please visit the Penguin Classics website
and Directory.Goggle.com
for more information on Eugene Ionesco.
