Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Peter Thomson

Critical Essay by Peter Thomson

SOURCE: “Games and Plays: An Approach to Ionesco,” in Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. XXII, No. 1, March 1970, pp. 60-70.

In the following essay, Thomson argues against critics who appraise Ionesco in terms of his plays’ meaning, and calls for a reassertion of interest in the playwright’s work based on his “manner” rather than his “matter.” He goes on to discuss the use of games as they operate in Ionesco’s absurd world.

I have in front of me Donald Watson’s seventh admirably translated volume of Ionesco’s plays, and I am puzzled. Reading the main and most recent piece, Hunger and Thirst (Le Soif et La Faim), was a struggle almost uninterrupted by delight. Has Ionesco changed? Has the climate? Have I? The three shorter pieces in Volume 7 were first published in 1963, in Paris. The Picture (Le Tableau) is a one-act piece with a thrusting theatricality reminiscent of The...
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