Ionesco, Eugène, << yuh NEHS koh or `EE` uh NEHS koh, yoo zhahn >> (1909-1994), was a Romanian-born French playwright. His unconventional plays often are filled with decaying or lifeless objects that grow until they suffocate the human characters. Many of his characters seem to have lost their power to think, and they act like robots. Since they speak in trite phrases, their words have lost their main function of communication.
In The Bald Soprano (1950) and The Chairs (1952), married couples symbolize the absurd qualities of life as Ionesco saw them. The Lesson (1951) depicts the use of language as an instrument of power and torture. The Killer (1958), Rhinoceros (1959), and A Stroll in the Air (1963) contain a character named Berenger who, isolated from the rest of humanity, faces as best he can the cruelties of life. Ionesco published six short stories and part of an autobiography in The Colonel’s Photograph (1962). His Notes and Counternotes (1962) expresses his ideas on theater and on writing plays.
Ionesco was born on Nov. 26, 1909, in Slatina, Romania. He became a permanent resident of France in 1938. He was elected to the French Academy in 1970. He died on March 28, 1994.
