The mother of all comedy plays arrives ...

Little Jasmine, the critically acclaimed theatre company that created In the Hour of God, Shakuntala and The Wedding Party, now brings you a brand new production of Eugene Ionesco’s well known classic — The Bald Soprano. Kirtana Kumar directs this crackling version and performs in it opposite the hilarious Ashvin Mathew. A unique element is the live sound design performed on stage by legendary guitarist Konark Reddy. The stellar cast, including Fizz as the fire chief, Lekha Naidu as the Maid, Prerna Kaul as Mrs Martin and Sanjay Iyer as Mr Martin, go at it hammer and tongs.The Bald Soprano will play at Jagriti, Whitefield on September 3 and September 4 including a Sunday matinee.It then runs at Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar from September 8 to 11 including a Sunday matinee.About the PlayThe Bald Soprano is a hilarious ‘anti-play’ that has been running non-stop, every night at the Theatre de La Huchette in Paris, an indication of the perennial popularity of Eugene Ionesco’s first play. A comedy in the Absurd Theatre tradition, The Bald Soprano is a work of art that has it’s origins in an English language primer.Enthused by the humour and idiocy of lines such as My tailor is rich or the artlessness of The ceiling is above, the floor is below, Eugene Ionesco wrote in opposition to the safe salon comedies of the time.Inspired by Dadaist artists such as Tristan Tzara, Ionesco was similarly antiwar, anti-bourgeois and anarchist in manner and tone.The idea of the play came to Ionesco while he was trying to learn English with 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 toil’).He originally wrote the play in his native language Romanian, then wrote it again in his adopted language French. The current title was set only after a verbal slip-up made by one of the actors during the rehearsals.PlotThe Smiths are a traditional couple from London who have invited another couple, the Martins, over for a visit.They are joined later by the Smiths’ maid, Mary, and the local fire chief, who is also Mary’s lover.The two families engage in meaningless banter, telling stories and relating nonsensical poems. At one point, Mrs Martin converses with her husband as if he were a stranger she just met.As the fire chief turns to leave, he mentions ‘the bald soprano’ in passing, which has a very unsettling effect on the others. Mrs Smith replies that she always wears her hair in the same style.After the fire chief’s exit, the play devolves into a series of complete non-sequiturs, with no resemblance to normal conversation.It ends with the two couples shouting in unison It is not that way. It’s over here right before a blackout occurs.When the lights come back on, the scene starts from the beginning with the Martins reciting the Smiths’ lines from the beginning of the play for a while before the curtain closes.The Bald Soprano follows a three act structure well, just about. But what’s the plot? Why does Bobby Watson marry Bobby Watson? Who is the bald soprano? Why doesn’t Mr Martin remember his wife? Set quite clearly in ‘an English room’ and speaking well, English, the actors are disturbed by a wildly chiming clock.It is the 1950’s, the era of Swedish minimalism and Stepfordian wives. Everyone plays the game well, almost.Like many plays in the theatre of the absurd genre, the underlying theme of The Bald Soprano is not immediately apparent. Many suggest that it expresses the futility of meaningful communication in modern society. The script is charged with non sequiturs that give the impression that the characters are not even listening to each other in their frantic efforts to make their own voices heard.There was speculation around the time of its first performance, categorising it as a parody. Ionesco states in an essay written to his critics, that he had no intention of parody, but if he were parodying anything, it would be everything.The Bald Soprano appears to have been written as a continuous loop. The final scene contains stage instructions to start the performance over from the very beginning, with the Martin couple substituted for the Smith couple and vice versa. Catch Kirtana Kumar’s version of this play in September.