French · 1909–1994
Romanian-French playwright who, with Samuel Beckett, invented the Theatre of the Absurd. Born in Slatina, Romania, he grew up shuttling between Romania and France, eventually settling in Paris. The Bald Soprano (1950) began as an exercise copying English-language phrasebook sentences; it became a demolition of meaningful communication. Rhinoceros (1959) allegorized totalitarianism through mass transformation into pachyderms. His plays strip logic from language and watch characters founder. Elected to the Académie française in 1970, he continued writing until dementia silenced him. The work endures: funny, bleak, performed constantly worldwide.