The lesson (drama)
The lesson (French: La Leçon ) is a one-act play by Eugène Ionesco (1909–1994), a Franco-Romanian author who is considered the most important playwright of the second half of the 20th century and a leading exponent of the theater of the absurd in France . The play was written in June 1950 and premiered on February 20, 1951 in the small room theater Théatre de Poche Montparnasse , directed by France Guy, under the direction of Marcel Cuvelier. The play, subtitled by the author as drame comique ( comic drama ), is shown uninterrupted to this day and in the same production (together with Ionesco's one-act The Bald Singer ) at the Parisian Théatre de la Huchette . It is also very popular in the German-speaking area, especially - not least because of its low staffing requirements - with experimental student, cellar and room theaters that have to get by with small ensembles.
action
(The page numbers in the following sections refer to the text edition given below and published by dtv-Verlag.)
A professor, “small in stature, already quite old, with a white goatee”, receives his new student (already forty today), a simple-minded high school graduate of eighteen, to give her private lessons in his study at the express request of her parents to all faculties at the same time ”. “He is extremely polite, very shy, so his voice sounds muffled; he is very correct and schoolmasterly. He keeps rubbing his hands. From time to time something lustful lights up in his eyes, but it disappears just as quickly ”(40). The girl, dressed in gray, with a “little white collar on her dark dress”, is dutifully carrying a school folder under her arm, assures right at the beginning that she has a great “desire to learn” and that she “deepens” her knowledge beyond her general education wanting to “specialize”. (42)
After a few introductory questions on regional studies ("Paris is the capital of ...?"), The professor examines it in arithmetic ("How much is one and one?") Over the course of the following forty-five minutes and then goes into the "secrets" initiated by addition, subtraction and multiplication, then confronted with an absurd philology and forced into completely nonsensical translation exercises. The professor's pedagogical methodology becomes stranger and more relentless: “While he appears harmless and insecure at the beginning of the plot, he gradually gains more and more security and authority, he becomes nervous, aggressive, commanding, until he finally like with his student plays on an instrument just as he likes it. Even the professor's voice, weak and timid at first, becomes stronger and stronger and finally penetrating, even thundering like a trumpet. "(40)
The initially optimistic girl becomes more and more confused and (apart from brief, increasingly rare rebellions) more and more meek. It complains of increasingly worsening toothache and finally becomes so apathetic that it unconditionally surrenders to the imperious dictation of its teacher and - the climax of the submissive - its tormentor pierces itself twice with a huge invisible knife and "slits it open from bottom to top" ( 67) leaves. The professor's whole body twitches, he sways and falls on a chair. He wipes the sweat from his forehead, stutters incomprehensible words to himself, looks at the knife in his hand, then at the young girl, and finally, as if waking up from a long dream, is seized with panic. Desperate, he calls out to his maid for help.
Marie, "strong in stature, 45 to 50 years old, red-cheeked and coiffed in the rustic style" (39), appears, sees the presents, puts on a stern expression, mocks the professor, gives him as he does her with the knife wants to threaten, two hard slaps in the face and has other advice: She promises to have the girl buried, along with the thirty-nine other students. The professor is grateful, but remains skeptical: Forty coffins? Isn't that getting too expensive? And won't people be amazed? - Marie calms him down: “Don't worry so much. It is said that the coffins are empty. People don't ask either. People are used to it. ”She ties an armband with a badge around the professor. “Take that, you don't need to fear anything anymore. That’s how it’s political. ”(69) - Even while the two of them are dragging the dead woman out of the room by arms and legs, the doorbell rings. Victim number 41 is announced.
interpretation
“The farce , interspersed with burlesque and pantomime-comic features, regardless of the relentless consistency of the parable, can be interpreted on several levels:
- literary as a parody of realistic problem and argumentation theater,
- philosophically as the victory of the absurd and irrational over knowledge,
- culturally critical as a satire on abstract pseudo-knowledge and educational chatter,
- politically as a representation of terrorization and destruction of the weaker by the stronger,
- psychologically as an exemplary design of the war between the sexes.
The murder can be understood as a sexual act, as the imaginary rape of the girl by the old professor who is intoxicated with authority. (The stage directions require the dead girl, who has sunk on a chair, to let her legs hang down shamelessly on both sides.) Instead of the language that has become unfit for communication, there is a sadistic destructive instinct that goes beyond the psychological facts into a metaphysical dimension leads into a human experience, which the amputated reality concept of unilateral oriented on social behavior ideological theater in the sense of the author's opinion Brecht proves superior. "
Musical editing
La Leçon is also the name of the ballet in one act by the Danish choreographer Flemming Flindt with music by Georges Delerue , whose libretto is based on the drama by Ionesco and was expressly authorized by him. The world premiere took place on April 6, 1964 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. The stage version was preceded by a television ballet that was first broadcast on September 16, 1963 by Danmarks Radio Television .
literature
Text output
- Eugène Ionesco, Théatre I: La Cantatrice chauve, La Lecon, Jacques ou la soumission, Les Chaises, Victimes du devoir, Amédée . Paris: Gallimard (1954).
- Eugène Ionesco, La cantatrice chauve, anti-pièce, suivi de La leçon, drame comique . (Paperback) Paris: Editions Gallimard (1954).
- Eugène Ionesco, Plays: The Bald Singer, The Lesson, Jacob or Obedience, The Chairs, Sacrifice of Duty, Amédée or How to Get Rid of Him . Trans. V. J. and U. Seelmann-Eggebert. Neuwied and Berlin: Luchterhand (1959).
- Eugène Ionesco, The lesson. La Leçon. Comical drama in one act. (Translated by Erica de Bary). In: Absurd theater . Pieces by Ionesco, Arrabal, Tardieu, Ghelderode, Audiberti. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (1966). Pp. 37-70. ISBN 3-423-01626-4
- Eugène Ionesco, The lesson . Audiobook (audio CD) prod. v. Reinhart Spoerri. Christoph Merian Verlag.
Secondary literature
- Martin Esslin : Eugène Ionesco: Theater and Antitheater. In: (Ders. :) The theater of the absurd. (Translated from the English by Marianne Falk). Reinbek: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag (1965). Pp. 97-158. ISBN 3-499-55234-5
- Bahners, Klaus: Eugène Ionesco: The bald singer / The lesson / The rhinos . King's Explanations and Materials (Vol. 392). Hollfeld: C. Bange Verlag 1997. ISBN 978-3-8044-1643-7
Individual evidence
- ^ Kindler's New Literature Lexicon. Study edition. Ed. V. Walter Jens. Munich: Kindler (1988). Volume 8, p. 424.