The Lesson
Lesson, The (La Leçon) Author: Eugène Ionesco
First Performance: 1951, Paris
Published: 1954
First English Translation: 1958
Genre: Drama in 1 act; French prose
Setting: The Professor's study, mid-20th c.
Cast: 1m, 2f
A timid Professor welcomes a confident young Pupil to his home. Her parents want her to prepare for the ‘total doctorate’, and the Professor, delighted that she knows the capital of France and can do simple addition, is confident that she will achieve her goal. However, when he moves on to subtraction, she is quite unable to take one amount from another. Although she can multiply extraordinarily large numbers, she fails utterly at division. Despite the warnings of his Maid, the Professor now turns to Philology. While the Pupil succumbs to debilitating...
[The entire page is 314 words long]
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