The Bald Singer
–It happens sometimes–

Based on the play by Eugène Ionesco

The more we speak, the less we communicate

The Bald Singer is a deeply antitheatrical play, according to its writer. It was staged for the first time in 1950 and provoked the fiery reaction of the spectators, who massively left the theatre in boos. However, in the years that followed, it was established as one of the most significant plays in international theatre, changing the terms of contemporary dramaturgy once and for all.

Using everyday simple phrases, clichés, and language automatisms, the Romanian founder of the Theatre of the Absurd – even though he never used the term himself – treats language as an obstacle, highlighting the weakness of human communication.

Ionesco, with his unique ability to provoke laughter and disgust at the same time, lets his characters be defenceless against words. He firmly resists the structure of a conventional plot, reverses every known theatrical form, and, in the end, becomes one of the most essential renewers of 20th-century theatre, with The Bald Singer considered by many as his magnum opus.

In the version proposed by Marilena Katranidou, the play is approached as a means of researching the mechanisms of human behaviour. A scenic proposal around the absurd, a dramaturgy made of heterogeneous materials, full of traps that seem illogically logical. A story of clichés: two typical English couples, a maid, a fire chief, a bell that tolls, a possible fire. Still, the real question lies elsewhere. How many common senses are needed for the absurd to occur?

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The play was staged at the Theatre Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki a decade ago as an honours thesis in the specialisation of directing. Since then, the work has travelled at festivals and stages both in Greece and abroad. It was recently staged at Amalia Theatre in Thessaloniki (November-December 2025).