Having learned a foreign language in high school, I can begin to understand Ionesco’s frustration. In fact, the opening scene reminded me of one of the stunningly boring tapes I was forced to listen to in French class. It is nine o’ clock. We ate fish and chips for dinner. We live in London. Even the slow moving manner of Mrs. Smith’s sentences evoked the feeling that she was speaking to someone who didn’t understand her. (Which I thought might have been true judging by the lack of reaction by Mr. Smith)
From there, the play spiraled into some nonsensical world where everyone’s name is Bobby Watson, people have been dead for 1,3, or 4 years but are somehow getting married, and a couple does not remember that they are husband and wife. I must admit I was thoroughly confused when I watched the show. Despite chuckling a few times, there was a confused look plastered to my face for the majority of the play. When the two couples starting spouting random words and the lights went off, I turned to the person next to me and said “WHAT?!?!”
Oddly enough, once the lights came back on, and the Martins were having the exact conversation as the Smith’s had had at the beginning of the show, I actually started to understand what the point was. Pointing out the interchangeability of the couples somehow cleared up the rest of the satire in my mind. I actually internalized the caricature of the English middle class. After that, I slowly got Ionesco’s play on language and modern conversation. I even figured out why everything had been upside down. (Something which had interested me while waiting for the show to start.)
Despite my complete confusion with the show, I must say the set designer and actors really tried helping the audience. The absurdist meets realist living room tried describing the life of the Smiths to us. And even though we had not a clue what the characters were saying, we could feel their emotions. Even clucking of the tongue and “hmmm”s came to mean something to us. The fighting scene, although complete nonsense was clearly a heated debate. Thanks to the actors, we got a glimpse of what was supposed to be happening.
The New York audience, like the audience of any major city can relate to this show because of its “class satire” status. However, the extreme frustration and awkwardness one feels watching the show is not something that the average New Yorker might enjoy. New Yorkers are known for being fast paced and knowledgeable people: the exact opposite of the characters in the show. I think this may have been the reason that the elderly made up the majority of the audience.
So was it a show worth seeing? Probably.
Would I see it again? NO!
