410 W Huron St
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
USA
Join us for this multi-media presentation about theater of the absurd including a theatrical performance by the actors performing “The Lesson” at the Yellow Barn. (Tickets for that performance available at the link below.)
Nicola’s Books will have copies of the play and also books about theater of the absurd on hand for purchase.
Theatre of the Absurd
Eugene Ionesco was born in Romania in 1912, but spent much of his life in France. “La Lecon” (“The Lesson”,) his second play, was written in 1950. Other playwrights whose plays are also considered to belong to the Theatre of the Absurd include Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, and Harold Pinter. There have been many different interpretations of “Absurdist” theatre. One thought is that these playwrights wished to rebel against traditional theatre, and to comment on certain aspects of society and the human condition by writing these “anti-plays.” “The Lesson” has been interpreted to demonstrate “the impossibility of communication” between the professor and his pupil, and the use of language as an instrument of power. Other explanations are that the professor represents dominance and even political dictatorship, and the maid represents a mother figure, or perhaps the professor’s subconscious mind.
The Play is the longest continuously running performance in the world. It has been performed seven days a week at Paris’s’Theatre de la Huchette’ for sixty years, always to a full house of theatre goers.
Tickets for the Yellow Barn performance available at https://www.artful.ly/store/events/12966
