EUGÈNE IONESCO

Eugène Ionesco (1909–1994) was primarily a French playwright, poet, and painter of Romanian origin. He was one of the main representatives and founders of the Theatre of the Absurd, and at the same time, he is one of its most frequently performed authors. From 1960, he published essays in Le Figaro, in which he criticized totalitarianism as such. As one of the first French intellectuals, he condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. Specifically, this happened in the articles "Czechoslovakia? The Only Country in Europe That Deserves Independence" (November 11, 1968) and "From Prague to London, All Shame" (April 14, 1969). As a result, translations of his books were removed from libraries in Czechoslovakia, and his plays were forbidden to be performed.