Production makes life one big laugh
Emily Taul
Issue date: 2/15/05 Section: Lifestyles
Eugene Ionesco's "The Bald Soprano," written to attack conformities of everyday life and language, will be presented by University Theater this week.
Peter J. Bukalski, a theater professor, is directing the hit.
"The plot is very avant-garde and contains very far-out comedy in experimental form," Bukalski said.
The play will begin at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16-19 and 2 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Metcalf Student Experimental Theatre.
The cast of 11 people will demonstrate the playwright's scheme that performers must use shocking tactics to bring down conventional theater myths and stereotypes.
"The play is considered to be a classic of the absurdism movement of the '50s and '60s, and is most likely the most important of its time," Bukalski said.
The idea of the play came to Ionesco while he was trying to learn English using the
Assimil method. He was impressed by the contents of the dialogues, often very sober and strange, so he decided to write an absurd play
named "L'anglais sans peine" ("English without pain"). The current title was set only after a verbal slip-up made by one of the actors during the repetitions.
This 90-minute show will have students laughing at the hilarious attack Ionesco takes on the banalities of everyday life.
"The play is labeled anti-theater because it makes fun of everything we do and say, ourselves, that is conventional," Bukalski said.
Students should be warned that this play is not appropriate for easily alarmed persons due to loud noises, blasts, blinking lights, and fanatical behavior.
"Absurdism was a very influential movement of its time, with two basic premises. One, that language has been degenerated to the point of nothing sensible being said, and second, that ordinary life itself has no sensibility," Bukalski said.
For more information about "The Bald Soprano" or to purchase tickets, contact the Theater and Dance Box office at 650-2774.
Peter J. Bukalski, a theater professor, is directing the hit.
"The plot is very avant-garde and contains very far-out comedy in experimental form," Bukalski said.
The play will begin at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16-19 and 2 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Metcalf Student Experimental Theatre.
The cast of 11 people will demonstrate the playwright's scheme that performers must use shocking tactics to bring down conventional theater myths and stereotypes.
"The play is considered to be a classic of the absurdism movement of the '50s and '60s, and is most likely the most important of its time," Bukalski said.
The idea of the play came to Ionesco while he was trying to learn English using the
Assimil method. He was impressed by the contents of the dialogues, often very sober and strange, so he decided to write an absurd play
named "L'anglais sans peine" ("English without pain"). The current title was set only after a verbal slip-up made by one of the actors during the repetitions.
This 90-minute show will have students laughing at the hilarious attack Ionesco takes on the banalities of everyday life.
"The play is labeled anti-theater because it makes fun of everything we do and say, ourselves, that is conventional," Bukalski said.
Students should be warned that this play is not appropriate for easily alarmed persons due to loud noises, blasts, blinking lights, and fanatical behavior.
"Absurdism was a very influential movement of its time, with two basic premises. One, that language has been degenerated to the point of nothing sensible being said, and second, that ordinary life itself has no sensibility," Bukalski said.
For more information about "The Bald Soprano" or to purchase tickets, contact the Theater and Dance Box office at 650-2774.
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