Eugène Ionesco

Eugene Ionesco, born Eugen Ionescu, was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre of the twentieth century. Born in 1909 and dying in 1994, and his work contributed to the beginnings of the Theatre of the Absurd. His first play, The Bald Soprano, an anti-play, contributed to the beginnings of what is known as the Theatre of the Absurd, and his later plays explore ideas of absurdism and surrealism. He was made a member of the Academie francaise in 1970 and was awarded the 1970 Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the 1973 Jerusalem Prize.