ΤHE BALD SOPRANO

Written in 1948, The Bald Soprano essentially established the Theatre of the Absurd, overturning all the conventional rules of classical dramaturgy.

By depicting in a paradoxical way the standardized everyday life of bourgeois society, Eugène Ionesco reveals the inadequacy of language as a means of communication and launches an attack on a world that seems to have lost its metaphysical dimension.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith welcome Mr. and Mrs. Martin into their English bourgeois living room.

Together, they try to alleviate their boredom by resorting to banalities, when the Fire Chief bursts in, who is on a secret mission.

At the same time, the household maid, Mary, fantasizes that she is Sherlock Holmes and recites improvised poems.

Captives of habit, pointless linguistic repetitions, and superficial relationships, Ionesco’s characters are marked by a complete lack of spirituality and emotional intelligence—victims of a social system that leads them to oblivion and spiritual annihilation.

The Bald Soprano was first staged at the Art Theatre in 1961, directed by Karolos Koun and translated by Kostas Stamatios, introducing the Athenian audience to the pioneering European theatrical writing of the time.

Using the new translation by Dimitra Kondylaki, Sofia Marathaki and the Atonal Theatre Group attempt to rediscover the absurd universe of the play, treating it as a “structure of destruction” that gradually collapses, revealing the boredom, loneliness, and ridiculousness that characterize modern human beings.