The Bald Soprano

Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 8:00pm
CFA Theater

SOLD OUT

Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 8:00pm
CFA Theater

$8 general public; $5 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $4 Wesleyan students

Friday, April 24, 2015 at 8:00pm
CFA Theater

$8 general public; $5 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $4 Wesleyan students

Saturday, April 25, 2015 at 2:00pm
CFA Theater

$8 general public; $5 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $4 Wesleyan students

Saturday, April 25, 2015 at 8:00pm
CFA Theater

$8 general public; $5 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $4 Wesleyan students

CFA Arts Administration Intern Chloe Jones ’15 talks to stage manager Julia Tyminski ’17, and Albert Tholen ’15 and Grace Nix ’15, who are performing as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, on the Center for the Arts blog here.

Directed by Professor of Theater Yuri Kordonsky.

Mr. Smith: Hm. (Silence)

Mrs. Smith: Hm, hm. (Silence)

Mrs. Martin: Hm, hm, hm. (Silence)

Mr. Martin: Hm, hm, hm, hm. (Silence)

In one of the seminal plays of Theater of the Absurd, The Bald Soprano (1950), Eugène Ionesco reveals the decay of a modern person and the futility of meaningful communication in contemporary society. Inspired by the cliché dialogues between the imaginary Mr. and Mrs. Smith in an English phrasebook for beginners, Mr. Ionesco rejected the coherent plot, character development, and concept of realistic drama, instead creating his own anarchic and grotesque form of comedy to convey the tragedy of language in a universe ruled by chance. In Jean-Paul Sartre’s words, “Ionesco sees our language as if from a distance. He reveals its banality and routine. The reader faces an acute realization of the absurdity of language, to the point when one does not want to speak anymore. His theater is a dream about language.”