Rhinoceros Reading List

Text of two early (and classic absurdist) plays, from the 1950s, The Bald Soprano and The Lesson. Originally advertised as an 'anti-play', in The Bald Soprano nonsense abounds and a man and a woman discover that they must be married to each other.

Tired of translations? Check out The Bald Soprano in the original French.

The Chairs, in original French. A play described by the author as a "tragic farce" (and criticized as 'anti-reality'!), centers on the lives of an elderly couple who ready a room for an orator who will deliver an important message for everyone.

Includes an English translation of The Chairs

Three plays: Exit the King, The Killers and Macbett

Not a play, but Ionesco's only novel.

Ionesco's writing on the theatre and his plays.

Esslin coined the term for this genre. This book examines what makes absurdist theatre.

While Esslin's book is the classic on the genre, this recent collection of essays re-visits theatre of the absurd and offers new perspectives.

Oh, they wait.