The Lesson (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eugene Ionesco
- First Published: 1954
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: The 1930’s
- Setting: An apartment in Europe
- Principal Characters: The Professor, The Pupil, Marie, the Maid
- Genres: Satire, Drama, Absurdist literature, Parody
- Subjects: Power, personal or social, Sex or sexuality, Europe or Europeans, Education or educators, 1930’s, Violence, Totalitarianism, Satire
- Locales: Europe
The Play
The Lesson is set entirely in the Professor’s apartment office, which is also a dining room, with a provincial buffet standing on the right. At center stage is a table that doubles as a desk. The window, upstage, is not very large, and through it the roofs of a small town can be seen in the distance. When the curtain rises, the stage is empty. After a few moments, the doorbell rings.
The stout Maid, wearing an apron and a peasant woman’s cap, enters through a door upstage, to the right, from a corridor of the apartment. She opens the hall door at...
[The entire page is 2620 words long]
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