Arena Season 1, Episode 345

Eugene Ionesco : the Joke's on Us · BBC Four · Friday, February 17

The absurdity of life has been Eugene lonesco's theme and preoccupation since he wrote the first of his 33 plays and, alongside Beckett and Genet, created a revolution in the theatre. Ironically, that first play, The Bald Prima Donna has become the Parisian Mousetrap, running non-stop for over 30 years and 10,000 performances. Tonight's Arena assesses the life and work of one of the century's outstanding dramatists, who, at 77, remains an unrepentant champion of the Theatre of the Absurd. Peter Hall , who directed the first Ionesco play in this country, talks about the playwright's relevance today, and Jonathan Miller ponders the difference between French and English nonsense. If, as Ionesco says, 'God created the world as a joke, our only response can be to laugh'.