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The Bald Soprano and Other Plays

by Eugène Ionesco, Donald Merriam Allen (Translator)

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 2,287 ratings · 57 reviews

The leading figure of absurdist theater and one of the great innovators of the modern stage, Eugene Ionesco did not write his first play, The Bald Soprano, until 1950. He went on to become an internationally renowned master of modern drama, famous for the comic proportions and bizarre effects that allow his work to be simultaneously hilarious, tragic, and profound.

Paperback, 160 pages

Published January 12th 1994 by Grove Press (first published 1954)

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Jan 28, 2009 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Amy

Recommended to Amanda by: Brad

If I were rating the Bald Soprano, I would give it a 5. I give Jack a 1, the chairs a 2 and the lesson a 2. Somehow this makes a overall rating of 2. So I will gush about the bald soprano.

I was introduced to it in a Kathy way. This contributes a lot to the overall liking of something. Kathy is my step mom who can talk about things so lovingly that I love them no matter how dull or ordinary they may seem. She usually does this with romantic comedies and above all odds gets me to hang with Keanu...more

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Oct 25, 2010 Ninja Sock Puppet rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Banana

Recommended to Ninja Sock Puppet by: Fish

Shelves: deep-shit

I have to admit: I didn't actually read this book, but I did read The Bald Soprano, so I thought this would be a good place to stick my review of it.

The Bald Soprano was one of Ionesco's earliest plays. He came up with the idea for the play while copying out sentences in English as a way to learn them. As he copied them, the words began to lose meaning the way they do when you repeat a word too much. Try it some time: just repeat a word over and over. Type it a hundred times, and soon the word w...more I have to admit: I didn't actually read this book, but I did read The Bald Soprano, so I thought this would be a good place to stick my review of it.

The Bald Soprano was one of Ionesco's earliest plays. He came up with the idea for the play while copying out sentences in English as a way to learn them. As he copied them, the words began to lose meaning the way they do when you repeat a word too much. Try it some time: just repeat a word over and over. Type it a hundred times, and soon the word will start to look funny to you.

Ionesco saw this as the language itself fragmenting. Without language, there can be no meaningful communication. Without that, we're all isolated and alone. Since we're nothing without our relationships, this gets at the heart of what it means to be human.

This insanely stupid method for learning a foreign language had Ionesco copying out inane sentences, often a Mrs. Smith explaining to Mr. Smith that he was reading the paper, or that he lived in a house with a dining room table, things like that. Ionesco incorporated this inanity in his play's dialog, which reinforces the idea that without communication we're isolated and alone. They're not saying anything meaningful, even though the sentences make sense on their own. Strung together, they're just syllables. Eventually, they start shouting single words at each other, some connected by tenuous meaning, but most just a jumble.

In the play, Mrs. Smith starts by making small talk. Mr. Smith is reading the paper, and isn't really paying attention to her. Once they start talking, they start realizing that they're not communicating and get frustrated and angry. There's an odd bit involving the Fire Chief and the Smith's maid, which contributes to the absurdist humor. I think it's meant to be watched and not read, as I've heard that the play gives directors an awful lot of leeway in how they choose to interpret the action.

My takeaway message from the play is, it's funny to repeat words over and over until they lose meaning. (less)

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Oct 18, 2010 John David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

These four plays of Ionesco, among the very first that he wrote, already show him preoccupied with themes that will concern him for the rest of his career in theatre: the futility of language, the terror of ideological conformity, and theorizing about the play within the framework of the play itself. This volume includes “The Bald Soprano,” “The Lesson,” “Jack; Or, The Submission,” and “The Chairs.” Needless to say, giving a summary, insofar as one could even be adduced, would go against the spi...more These four plays of Ionesco, among the very first that he wrote, already show him preoccupied with themes that will concern him for the rest of his career in theatre: the futility of language, the terror of ideological conformity, and theorizing about the play within the framework of the play itself. This volume includes “The Bald Soprano,” “The Lesson,” “Jack; Or, The Submission,” and “The Chairs.” Needless to say, giving a summary, insofar as one could even be adduced, would go against the spirit of absurdism generally speaking. After all, the plots are not the most interesting things in the plays.

Ionesco got the idea for “The Bald Soprano” while trying to learn Assimil method. His textbook had two characters, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (who also appear in his play), and who, despite being married to one another, feel compelled to describe one another’s physical appearance, tell one another that they are both English as if all of this was genuinely new information. Mr. and Mrs. are the epitome of the English bourgeois, speaking in stock phrases and clichés (How curious it is, how curious it is, how bizarre, and what a coincidence!”) so worn with use as to be devoid of any meaning. The dialogue between the characters provides a discursiveness with which he points to the emptiness and futility of language, the hopelessness of communication.

Ionesco describes “The Lesson” as a “comic drama,” though I found difficulty founding anything comic in it. In this play, he takes on the subject of authoritarianism as a professor of philology (which “always turns into calamity,” according to his maid) relentlessly and unmercifully lectures a female student. When she proves unable to understand much of the material, he grows increasingly violent, with the student ending up dead. At the very end of the play, we learn that she is the professor’s fortieth victim. And another one is walking in the door. So much for the victory of Reason.

Unlike the work of other absurdists, Beckett for example, Ionesco’s plays are ostentatious, full of lively dialogue, and never inward-looking or contemplative, although many of Ionesco’s themes are also Beckett’s. The narrativity of drama, or the lack thereof, or even the possibility thereof, is a subject of both of their work.

At least for me, these plays are fun, but only in small doses. The constant litany of illogical non sequiturs and trying to keep track of all the characters that have similar names can become a little taxing and grating if the exposure goes on for too long. Nevertheless, these plays have aged remarkably well, and they remain one of the best introductions to the Theatre of the Absurd for the uninitiated.
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Oct 26, 2012 Rhoda rated it 2 of 5 stars

First, a word of warning: The four plays in this book should not be consumed in one sitting - the absurdity is just too much and you're likely to form a negative impression of Ionesco. That said, after giving myself time to reflect upon each of these plays (and even going to performances of two of them), I feel justified in saying that they are a waste of time. You'd do better to read other existentialist writers like Sartre and Camus, whose limpid prose dramatize their belief that language and...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Gretchen Adkins rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the first two plays in this book, not so much the latter two. I feel like Eugene Ionesco had a unifying theme a midst all the madness of his work in the first two plays but it was lacking in the second two.
The stage directions in one of the plays said that the goal was to leave the audience feeling awkward, shameful uncomfortable, and guilty. I'm not a fan of feeling that way after investing so much time in a play. Producing a play takes a lot of time and some "play-goers" woul...more I really enjoyed the first two plays in this book, not so much the latter two. I feel like Eugene Ionesco had a unifying theme a midst all the madness of his work in the first two plays but it was lacking in the second two.
The stage directions in one of the plays said that the goal was to leave the audience feeling awkward, shameful uncomfortable, and guilty. I'm not a fan of feeling that way after investing so much time in a play. Producing a play takes a lot of time and some "play-goers" would say that paying for a sitting down to watch a play should leave you with some sense of enlightenment. These plays don't really provide that. Reading them they inspired no enlightenment. I grew tiresome, monotone, droning, awkward, assaulted by large vocabulary that no-one in their right mind understands, muddled, and even angry at times.

The Bald Soprano - Someone told me this play can best be described as "a house of robots." I honestly can't put it any better. This play has little or no plot. The emphasis is really based on character and all those characters live in their own little worlds but know their place. During the play they just go through the motions of a normal day.
The Lesson - This one was probably my favorite play in the whole book. Great plot. Great build up to the end. Awkward ending on the last page or two but that is expected of absurdest theatre. This is a must read!
Jack or The Submission - Impossible vocabulary! If you look up every insane word that you don't know in this play while you read it, you would be doing yourself a disservice. If you were performing the play, yes, definitely look the words up and know what they mean. Since this play is so absurd the words don't fit into the context of the sentences or situations in a reasonable manor anyways. You could honestly make up anything you want to put in place of those words and it would all be the same play.
The Chairs - I hated this play. It's so repetitive and monotone. There is no visible plot. The ending makes the less sense than anything I have ever read before. This play felt very long because of it's repetitive nature and I am almost sorry I even read it. It really was a waste of an hour of my life. I recommend it for no one.(less)

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Apr 02, 2013 علی rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-plays

The Bald Soprano (1957) has been in permanent showing at the Theatre de la Huchette, in Paris.
مارتین ها، اسمیت ها را به خانه دعوت کرده اند. ماری مستخدمه ی مارتین ها و دوست پسرش که رییس آتش نشانی منطقه است، به جمع می پیوندند. آنها مشغول داستان های خنده دار و اشعار هجو می شوند. رییس آتش نشانی هنگام رفتن می گوید؛ "آوازه خوان طاس"، و خانم اسمیت می گوید او همیشه کلاه گیسش را به یک شکل می گذارد، و فضا از حالت معمول گفتگو خارج می شود، به فریاد زوج ها ختم می شود که می گویند اینجوری نیست، اینجاست. درست پ...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Jeff Lucas rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fondly remembering playing the fireman, directed by Tim Longo, San Francisco State Brown Bag Theatre, advisors, teachers, co-actors and writers, Rhonnie Washington, Christopher Hampton, Lyn-Barbra Mahler, Yukihiro Goto, Bill Peters, Mohammad Kowsar, Larry Eilenberg, chair Joel, his friend Charlie Varon, working at the Gateway, new Eureka Theatre, Getting A-Head!, Yuri, Bill Schwartz, nearby comedy club, driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, driving Christopher, my brother reading A Hearbreaking...more

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Feb 04, 2008 Dustin rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Bald Soprano is perhaps the most hilarious sample of writing i have ever witnessed. It absolutely reeks of non-sequitur and extreme linguistic skepticism. As i was reading this play all alone in my room, I burst out into uncontrolled laughter multiple times. After the dust settled, I was able to observe the clever and biting criticism of language manifest in cliche and proverb, the all-out martyrdom to keeping the conversation afloat and come off as witty in the end.
"I believe we have spe...more The Bald Soprano is perhaps the most hilarious sample of writing i have ever witnessed. It absolutely reeks of non-sequitur and extreme linguistic skepticism. As i was reading this play all alone in my room, I burst out into uncontrolled laughter multiple times. After the dust settled, I was able to observe the clever and biting criticism of language manifest in cliche and proverb, the all-out martyrdom to keeping the conversation afloat and come off as witty in the end.
"I believe we have spend a Cartesian quarter of an hour here." exclaims Mrs. Smith, depending on the socially successful stream of nonsense comprising their finished conversation to prove her and their existence.
For Ionesco, it seems, language has become something altogether different than communication, but it is now simply rock and dirt that people throw at each other like physical objects. The play ends with everyone shouting words continually and incoherently, playing off each other's screams, stringing together words simply by sound and alliteration rather than by idea or meaning.
Every character in the play is more or less interchangeable with the others and, at the end of the play one couple actually takes the place of the other and the play begins anew, signifying that this is an undying pattern in which everyone plays and merely takes the place of the people in the seats before them. One episode of the play has the husband and wife Martin enter the scene and begin a tiresome dialogue in which they try to remember why or how they recognize each other, tracing back the events of the last few weeks and finding it a jolly coincidence that they, in fact, sleep in the same bed and even share the same daughter. The implication is that the characters are so invisible that husband and wife cannot even recognize each other, but can only assume affiliation based on physical juxtaposition in the world.
The nonsense comes to a climax when the Fire chief makes a meaningless reference to "the bald soprano" which no one could possibly understand and then Mrs. Smith replies with an inconceivable joke to wade through the impossible reference, saying, "she always wore her hair the same way."

The other notable play in this volume is The Chairs. In this play an old man and woman are preparing for a large party at which the man is to give his entire personal philosophy through a hired orator to a crowd of distinguished persons. The guests arrive and the old couple speak to them warmly and gratefully, though all the guests are invisible. Finally, the Emperor, a sort of god-figure, perhaps, shows up and the old man is pleased into resignation that the emperor will hear his life's culmination of thoughts. The orator soon appears as well, yet he is real, and after he appears the old couple jump out windows on opposite sides of the room into the river, a cool double suicide, being satisfied with the assurance that the orator will deliver to the people the old man's thoughts of significance, his existential casebook. Yet once they exit, the orator attempts to speak to the invisible, probably absent, audience, though, he is mute and deaf and is unable to convey a shred of meaning. He writes a bit of nonsense on the blackboard and, seeing that his audience failed to understand, wrote, in lightly cryptic text, adieu dieu: goodbye god.
It is a terribly depressing end for the old couple to kill themselves off with such blissful assurance that their lives were meaningful, the man, that a fine audience would behold his philosophical significance and the wife, that she could love and be with him during his last success. Yet the inane orator and absent crowd completely blacken the final hopes and dreams of the elderly couple and imply that their lives were, in fact, meaningless, and that they are allowed no final defense of themselves, for the hearing was canceled, no one attended, not even the emperor. (less)

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Sep 10, 2012 Edward rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is another play of the genre, "Theater of the Absurd". I read it as well as saw it performed live by a very talented theater troupe many, many moons ago. I don't want to give away the entire plot of this play, but "A-E-I-O-U" is an important part of the dialogue as well as revealing to how Eugene Ionesco might view society sometimes. I do recommend reading this play as well as other plays from Eugene Ionesco. You just might find yourself seeing and enjoying life with all of its absurdities....more

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Sep 10, 2011 Christopher Sutch rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading these plays made me desire greatly to stage them. I'm certain Ionesco's work has a visceral element to it that only comes through (or, perhaps, mainly comes through) in actually seeing the productions as opposed to merely reading them--especially "The Bald Soprano" and, my favorite in this volume, "The Chairs." Absurdist theater can sometimes be a bit repetitive and dull, but these early plays of Ionesco's still seem fresh, and still contain the seeds of social commentary: upon suburban...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Shayne rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have a confession: I LOVE absurd humor, and if you love the absurd, The Bald Soprano is the play for you! It will certainly have you laughing until you cannot breathe. The Chairs and the other plays included in this collection were not my taste (hence only a 4-start rating), but if you are looking for a good laugh, and you want something quick to read, check out The Bald Soprano!

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Aug 09, 2009 Wayne rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Bald Soprano-- How curious it is, how curious it is, and bizarre and what a coincidence! One should rate this higher due to its place in theatrical history--However, as a read it evokes, but does not realize, the three dimensional theatricality of the stage. Repetition especialy, requires the actors' energy (certainly not mine) to bring life and depth to these lines.

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Jul 28, 2011 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

I really loved The Bald Soprano, The Chairs was pretty decent, but I didn't care for the other to plays. What bothered me about the leson was the girl's seeming complete loss of character by the end of the play. I mean, at some point she doesn't have any interesting dialogue. But I thought The Bald Soprano was an absolutely incredible play on its own, extraordinarily funny.

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Sep 18, 2012 Heather Maddox rated it 3 of 5 stars

It seems silly at first, but when you stop taking it so seriously, the parallels start to jump out at you like, "hm... that is a silly, but true perspective on marriage after several years" or "wow. I didn't realize that all the socialising and all the social media is just chatter about one Bobby Watson or another". A good book.

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Jan 21, 2011 Kaethe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: format-script, theater

More Ionesco plays. Sometimes I bemoan "the modern play" and the fact that nothing seems as fresh as Ionesco did to me, back then. But what do I know? I don't even go to plays anymore, because I can't stop thinking about as if it were work.

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Dec 14, 2008 Stacie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: absurdity, plays

My college acting debut (and last time on the stage) was as a clock in the Bald Soprano. This was a follow up to my work as Peppermint Patty in the fifth-grade production of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown.

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Nov 18, 2010 Ida rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bald Soprano is an absolute must!It's an absurd drama masterpiece.I utterly enjoyed every sentence,word of it.funny.Deteriorating human existence,futile conversations,comic tragedy.Loved it.x

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Feb 20, 2009 Gabrielle rated it 5 of 5 stars

I never tire of this play. This is one of the most brilliant twists of language, character and plot that I've ever encountered. A must read. Nay, a MANDATORY read.

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Sep 15, 2010 kissmyshades rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, romanian, plays

oh look at me being absurdist! look at me pointing out the banality of our lives and the inadequacy of language! maybe i'm missing something but i'm underwhelmed.

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Jun 17, 2010 Laura Leaney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

How curious! How bizarre! Why are there so many Bobby Watsons? Who can tell me what this all means? Why do I like this play so much?

This piece speaks to the little voice inside me (his name is Phil) who tells me that nothing EVER is supposed to make any sense. Ionesco proves it here. So don't try to pigeon-hole things!

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Sep 14, 2009 Albie added it

Four Plays: The Bald Soprano, The Lesson, Jack or the Submission, The Chairs by Eug

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Apr 05, 2013 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Only read The Bald Soprano but it was the best absurdist play I've read up to this point in my life.

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Jun 30, 2011 Katherine Haker rated it 4 of 5 stars

okay so eugene ionesco is weird and hella romanian and so are his plays. and i think they are GREAT.

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Feb 05, 2013 Jilly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: absurd-drama, favorites, plays

Plešatá zpěvačka aneb první absurdní drama, které jsem si zamilovala.

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Jul 14, 2012 Seth Miller rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was when I realized you could be an artist and fuck with people at the same time.

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Jan 21, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I haven’t read Ionesco in a while and decided to revisit Allen’s wonderful translation of his work. Rereading these four plays, I was struck Ionesco’s humanity.

When we read or see a play that is considered “absurd,” there is often something that feels cold, detached, and disconnected about the work. Not so with Ionesco. For me, the strength in these plays is that they are able to be explosively funny and profoundly dark, all the while maintaining a wistfulness and sensitivity that makes them te...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Miles rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The Bald Soprano" is pretty wonderful, but I truly hated "The Lesson."

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Mar 07, 2013 Emma added it

Very confusing, I had to read it twice to understand it.

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May 22, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Only read The Bald Soprano.

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Jan 17, 2012 Chris Gager rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My edition looks different but it's the same book. I'd never read any of this stuff before though I'd heard of Ionesco(Ionescu?). Very interesting to read but one must envision and hear everything that's happening. Be director, actor(s) and audience at the same time. The plays are by turn very sarcastic, satirical and funny. He certainly doesn't think much of middle-class life. The last one: "The Chairs" seemed very dreamlike to me.... surreal... as were the other three to some extent. Also the...more

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About Eugène Ionesco

Eugène Ionesco, born Eugen Ionescu, was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist; one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict in a tangible way the solitude and insignificance of human existence.

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