Roi Se Meurt (Collection Folio)

by Eugène Ionesco

Paperback, 1973

Status

Available

Call number

848

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Gallimard Education (1973), 137 pages

Description

First produced in 1963 starring Alec Guinness and successfully revived to great acclaim on Broadway in 2009, this absurdist exploration of ego and mortality is set in the crumbling throne-room of the palace in an unnamed country where King Berenger the First has only the duration of the play to live.3 women, 3 men

User reviews

LibraryThing member TedWitham

This a superb meditation on the reality of death seen through the eyes of the King, who stands for the ego. His two wives, the Guard, the Maid and finally the doctor are all aspects of the King's own psyche. Each 'character' guides the King through part of the journey into death.

The conclusion is

crushing: when the Kng dies, the Universe ceases to exist. And yet, this pessimism is undercut by the King's own childishness. A bigger picture is implied, but never described.

This is a play which draws the viewer in. It uses wit and words to make beauty in a sombre and dark world.

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LibraryThing member 391

I thought it was a little heavy-handed on the obvious symbolism at times, but nonetheless a really attractive and intriguing play.

LibraryThing member Devil_llama

It's a good thing I had seen this play before I read it, or I would have believed it was unperformable. The stage directions call for things that would challenge most theatres, but in the end, apparently it can be done. This is the story of a king on his death bed who will not accept he is dying.

His kingdom is falling apart, possibly because of his illness. Reading it, I was able to see things in it that I missed when watching it. Like, this feels very much like a Death of God play. The images, the lists of achievements of the king, leave very little doubt that either the people attending him in his last hours are building him up, or he was truly a powerful king. At first it feels like the first, but as I continued to read, it began to sound like the last. A truly absurd entry in the canon of one of the all time great absurdists.

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