A Fugitive's Lesson

Show Description:

A FUGITIVE’S LESSON might be viewed as American lampooning from breaking news/social media sources.  Its source material’s history is far more interesting; two absurdist comic European plays that intertwine sexual, ethical and legal responsibility to nonsensical ends: Eugene Ionesco’s THE LESSON, translated by Donald M. Allen, and Ugo Betti’s THE FUGITIVE (abridged) translated by G.H. McWilliam.  Simplified, THE LESSON concerns a Professor and the frustrations evidenced by the ignorance of his pupil. THE FUGITIVE offers up a minor civil servant whose feelings of betrayal grant him leave of his wife.  Both Ionesco and Betti were post-World War II European playwrights whose new wave brand of modern drama garnered the designation Theatre of the Absurd.  The plays, as presented, run parallel to each other but their themes coalesce.