Eugene Ionesco - Plays 11 - The Man With the Luggage & The Duel & Double Act & Why Do I Write

Since the early 1950s, Ionesco has surprised and delighted theatre audiences with a new kind of drama. He wrote plays that are often excruciatingly funny, exploring all the peculiarities of language. He combined verbal humour with bizarre and unusual events that nevertheless are always recognisably close to reality - just as our dreams resemble our waking lives

The influence of dreams on Ionesco's plays is always evident: it accounts largely for the menace which lies behind the humour, the elements of horror and nightmare that make his plays exciting to watch, as well as funny and thought-provoking. It was principally with Ionesco in mind that the phrase 'Theatre of the Absurd' was coined, but his absurdity only just covers his real purpose - to show us the world that we do not quite dare to face

'The Man With The Luggage' is a major play about travel: through space, through time, through generations and through life. The many nightmare situations that are familiar to every traveller are recognisable: just catching or missing trains, hanging onto one's luggage - never quite sure if it is all there, passport problems, encounters with rules, regualtions and officialdom and many incidents more bizarre and more unnerving.But the play is also about travel through time and confusion of identity.: with mother, father, sister, brother; with getting older, getting younger, birth and death

Ionesco's plays can be read like novels - constantly provoking a recognition of situations that have affected us all at some time - amusing audiences and readers, but frightening them too.

The volume also contains two vignettes writen for the stage revues 'Oh! Calcutta!' and 'Carte Blanche', and an important revealing essay entitled 'Why do I Write?'. This essay and 'The Man With the Luggage' have been translated by Donald Watson, who has been associated with Ionesco ever since he first became known in Britain, while the two short plays have been rendered by Clifford Williwams - the director of the stage reviews in which they appeared