SOURCE: “Human/Non-human Relationships in Ionesco’s Theatre: Conflict and Collaboration,” in Kentucky Romance Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 3, Summer 1983, pp. 240-50.

In the following essay, Lane examines the role of décor in Ionesco’s plays, asserting that the external surroundings interact with other “characters” on stage in a wide range of relationships, for example as antagonists and collaborators.

One of the most striking features of Eugène Ionesco’s theatre is the prominent role accorded to décor. In fact, so many critics have commented upon this subject that there might appear to be little or nothing left to add to the volumes already written. Nearly all critics (relying perhaps too much on lonesco’s own extraordinarily verbose commentary on his motives and personal obsessions¹) have viewed the role of décor as metaphorical, without defining exactly what a theatrical metaphor might be, or distinguishing...