Eugène Ionesco‘s Le Tableau to publish in Iran

The Picture (French: Le Tableau) is a one-act play written by Eugène Ionesco and first published in Viridis Candela, the journal of the Collège de 'Pataphysique. The first performance was in Paris at the théâtre de la Huchette in October 1955, directed by Robert Postec and with Pierre Leproux, Pierre Chevallier, Tsilla Chelton, Maria Murano.

 

Le Gros Monsieur, aka the fat gentleman, is an irresistible, shrewd businessman. Le Peintre, aka The Painter, wants to sell him his painting. Initially, he wants 500,000 francs for it but in the end, the fat gentleman so savagely criticizes the painting, when he finally looks at it, that the Le Peintre agrees to pay the fat gentleman to store his painting. Alice, an old, ugly, and ill woman, is asked by her brother to lend him a hand.

The play is subheaded Guignolade, that is a Guignol play, and Eugène Ionesco insists that it be played by Clowns in the most excessive, idiotic way. The characters shall not have any psychological depth, and the social content is merely accidental. According to the playwright, only extreme childish simplification can reveal the meaning of this farce, and it can become plausible when it is most improbable and idiotic. Idiocy can be such a revealing simplification for Ionesco.

 

The author's emphasis on the word "idiocy" is rather puzzling, but the contrast between the aesthetic and the utilitarian in the play is noteworthy, and as a classical theme, it seems to guarantee this humble play's lasting relevance.

Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco instigated a revolution in ideas and techniques of drama, beginning with his "anti play", The Bald Soprano which contributed to the beginnings of what is known as the Theatre of the Absurd, which includes a number of plays that, following the ideas of the philosopher Albert Camus, explore concepts of absurdism