John Carroll University

Carroll Collected
Theatre Productions Communication & Theatre Arts

11-13-1969

The Lesson
Eugene Ionesco

Follow this and additional works at: http://collected.jcu.edu/plays

Recommended Citation
Ionesco, Eugene, "The Lesson" (1969). Theatre Productions. 12.
http://collected.jcu.edu/plays/12

This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication & Theatre Arts at Carroll Collected. It has been accepted for inclusion in
Theatre Productions by an authorized administrator of Carroll Collected. For more information, please contact [email protected].
•

AND
~

~ "'r"'
~'C)
in "fHr L1~ 'f~~(
~oV. 13, 14, IS, 16
20,21,2.2,.23
8:30 P.f"\.
 OUR NEW LITTLE THEATRE

It is wi t h great pleasure thal we welcome you to

our ne\v Little Theatre, the permanent home of th e
LTS . ll is here Lhal \ve \vi ll stage ou r majo r pla ys ,
the Readers Thea Lre programs , the workshop and
experimental productions. Additionally , th e entire
theatre comp l ex is designed to accommodate t eaching
Lhe theatre courses of the Speech Department .

The faci liti es inc lud e : separate dr ess ing ro oms ,

a Green Room, a storage and work area, an observa -
t ion c lassroom , a t ech nic a l room, the house and
the stage .

The house sea ls 108 comfortably. The chairs arc

port a ble, a ll owing us to ar r ange th em to suit the
individual pl ay . Because the seating capacity is
limited, we incr eased the number of performances to
eight -- with a Th urs day through Sunday run of two
weeks. Admi ssion is still free, and all seats are
available on a first -come ba s is.

The stage is an open platform without a curtain.

Both it and the house comprise an organic unit,
the wa ll s of th e hous e mer ging with those of the
stage . The sides a nd back of th e stage are framed
in with a permanent architectural redwood facade
with eleven openings fo r variety and fluidity of
action . The spotlights are hung openly from the
li ght bridge and side poles in the house.

If you feel that you a r e in an authentic theatre,

then we have achieved our goa l.

The Spring play will be one of the following: THE

UNKNOWN SOLDIER AND HIS WIFE by Peter Ustinov;
PANTAGLEIZE by Michel de Ghelderode; CORRUPTION IN
THE PALACE OF JUSTICE by Ugo Betti .

1.
 lO ES CO and 'liiE I.ESSOt'

!unesco ' s plays arL· 1vritten for t he theatre . His

pr og1 am has beet, sc l dO\, .1 by him in a fuv for t h -
r ight sen t ences . "Con t empo r a r y t hea t rC; has bee n
spo il ed by t he li te r a t i . I t has become a kind of
seco nd-r a t e l i t e r a t ure . Theat r e is 'JO t li t e r a -
tur e . I L is simp l y wha t ca nn o t b expressed by
a ny o t he r mea ns ."

It i s Lh e Lhca lr ica l i l ) of th e dramatic .::tcti o n t hat

ma kes l o nes et) a l or midabl e avant- gardist capabl e
o f c ha ll e ngin g as we ll a s irritating u s , and th e r e
a r c ti mes ind ee d wh e n we c an be chall e nged onl y
by being irrit a t e d or a ffron te d.

Lf nlik l' 11 !E BALD SOPRANO- - a play in \v hich no soprano

app ea red, and no bald person e ither--THE LESSON
do es indeed c oncern itself with a l ess on, an unusual
one , but a lesson never the less.

THE LESSON, like THE BALD SOPRA 0, i s concerne d with

language and the basic impossibility of corrununica -
tion. Thus , if one man says "Grand,,tother" and
another man says "Gr andmoth e r", th e y seem to b e
saying the same thing, but are in fact talkin g about
vastly different people. So, as the professor
learnedly points out, if an Italian says "my country,"
he means Italy, but if an Oriental says "my country, "
he means the Ori e nt. To lonesco. this demonstr a tes
that words cannot conve y me aning s be cause they
leave out of account th e personal a ssociations
they carry for each individual .

But there is mor e a bout language in THE LESSO than

a demonstration of the difficulties of communication .
Here language is also shown as an instrument of
power. It is clear that the professor derives his
progressive increase of power from his role as a
giver, a very arbitrary prescriber, of meanings.
Because words must have the sig nific a nc e he decided
to give them, the pupil comes under his dominance .
THE LESSON expresses in caricatured form the spirit
of domination always present in teacher-pupil
relationships.
2.
 THE CHARACTERS

THE MAIV . Christ ine Mower

THE PUPIL Michelle Reill ey
THE PRO FESSOR . Edward Joseph

Scene : The office of the old professor, which

also serves as a dining room .

INTERMISSION of FIFTEEN MI UTES

Pupil : . . . My parents also want me to ge t an

education . They want me to specialize .
They consider a little general cultur e ,
eve n if it is solid , is no longer enough ,
in these times .

Professor: Your p a rents, miss , are perfectly

right. You must go on with your studies.
Our contemporar y life has become most
complex . And y ou wish to qualif y
for . . . ?

Pupil: Just as soon as possible, for the first

doctor's orals . They 're in three weeks time.

Professor: . . . And which doct ora te do you wi sh

to qual ify for? In the p hysical sciences
or in moral philosoph y?

Pupil: My parents are v e ry mu ch hoping . . . that

I can qualify for the total doctorate.

Professor: The total doctorate? . . You have

great courage, young lady, I congratulate
you sincerely.

3.
 ALBEE and THE ZOO STORY

Edward Albee comes into the category of the Theatr

of the Absurd precisely because his work attacks
the very foundations of American optimism. THE
ZOO STORY, his first play, shows the forcefulness
and bitter irony of his approach. In the realism
of its dialogue and in its subject matter--an
outsider's inability to establish genuine contact
with a dog, let alone any human being--THE ZOO
STORY is closely akin to the work of Harold Pinter.

Jerry, the outcast, and Peter, the conformist

bourgeois, sum up all the contrast between lives
of desperation and placidity. Though sophisticated,
Peter accepts the norms and judgements of his
middle-class society, and there is no room in that
respectable universe for the experience contained
in the poor and lonely Jerry, who lives across the
hall from a Puerto Rican family and next door to a
homosexual.

In his sojourn among society's outcasts, in society's

underworld, Jerry has learned something Peter does
not know, or has forgotten . For "sometimes,"
according to Jerry , "a person has to go a very long
distance out of his way to come back a short dis-
tance correctly." Jerry has come back to an under-
standing of man ' s savage nature. And Jerry knows,
too, that any genuine communication, any real
contact, requires an appeal to the lower as well as
the upper being.

For the half-manto achieve wholeness, in Albee ' s

world, often requires something of an explosion.
So, Jerry can make contact only by deliberately
awakening the slumbering animal in Peter--pushing
him, insulting him, slapping him, forcing him to
fight. The beast in Peter, and, by implication, the
carefully penned "animals" in society at large, can
no longer be disowned. Thus, between the two men
contact is established unforgettably.

4.
 THE CHARACTERS

JERRY . . . JON McKENZIE

PETER. MIKE SCHMITTDIEL

Scene: The story is laid in Central Park,

New York City .

A Sunday afternoon.

Jerry: It's just . . . it's just that . . .

it ' s just that if you can't deal with people, you
have to start somewhere. WITH ANIMALS! Don't
you see? A person has to have some way of dealing
with SOMETHING. If not with people . . . if not
with people . . . SOMETHING . With a bed, with a
cockroach , with a mirror . . . no , that ' s too hard ,
that ' s one of the last steps . With a . . . with
a . . . with a carpet, a roll of toilet paper . .
no, not that , either . . . that ' s a mirror , too;
always check bleeding. You see how hard it is to
find things? With a street corner, and too many
lights, all colors reflecting on oily-wet streets
. . with a wisp of smoke, a wisp . • . of smoke
. . . with . . . pornographic playing cards, with
a strong box . . . WITHOUT A LOCK . . . with love,
with vomiting, with crying, with fury because the
pretty little ladies aren't pretty little ladies,
with making money with your body which is an act
of love and I could prove it, with howling because
you're alive; with God. How about that? WITH GOD
WHO IS A COLORED QUEEN WHO WEARS A KIMONO AND PLUCKS
HIS EYEBROWS, WHO IS A WOMAN WHO CRIES WITH DETER-
MINATION BEHIND HER CLOSED-DOOR ROOM . . . with God
who, I'm told, turned his back on the whole thing
some time ago . . . with . . . some day, with people.
Pe ople . . .

5.
 PRODUCTION STAFF
Di~z.e.c.toJt . Leone J . Marinello
Stag e. Manag e.Jt . John E . Schlosser
A6-6oc.. Stg . Mg!z. . . Richard Snider
T'tr.ope.Jtt-te.-6 . . Ma r y Ann Momich
Co -6 t wn e. -6 . Maureen Powers
Make.- Up . .Marie D'Amico
llou.6 e. Ma11ag e~z.s . . Pam Dolney
Kathleen McWilliams
Bookholde.Jt . .Cindi Seman
~et Con-6-t:Jtu.c.t-ton . . Bill Simmer,
Bill Shipley , Tom McGarrill , Mike Donovan,
Richard Dillon Embreus , Jerry Egan
Li9ht-tn q . . Mar y Beth Reilley,
Frank Widynski , John Malone, Greg Knittel

Ge.n . Te. c.h A-6-6 -t-6-t: . Nora Kovacs,

Tom Beljan, Roz Rettman , Bill Belknap,
Jack Mannen, Allana Fallon, Jan Amann,
Kathy Sharky

Pu.bl-tc.-tty . Gerry Novak,

Lisa Dreussi, Cindy Sopko, Elaine Gorski

Spe.c.-tal Te.c.hn~c.al Adv~-60/t • Mike Mancino

The.atJte. Ma-tnte.nanc.e. • Jon McKenzie
Ed Joseph

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
PJte..o~de.nt Michelle Reille y
Publ~c.~ty D~Jt .. .Ed Joseph
Bu..o. Mg!t. . Jon McKenzie

6.
 IEET THE CAST

MICHELLE REILLEY, President of the LTS, Hill re-

ceive her degree in Speech next 1ay. She has ap-
peared in LTS productions of Pirandello's SIX CHAR-
ACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR, Pagno 1' s TOPAZE,
and, most recetly, as Kassandra in Aeschylus'
AGAMEMMO . She has ~vorked ~vi th the Cleve land Play-
house, both locally in children's theatrP and as a
scholarship student at Chatauqua, New York. THE
LESSO is her first acting endeavor since ending
Iter summer's residency as a member of the ensemble
at Thunder Bay Summer Theatre in Alpena, Michigan.
There her credits included lead roles in STAR-
SPANGLED GlRL, GYPSY, CAT 0 l A HOT TIN ROOF and
SOUTH PACIFIC. She intends to pursue a career in
musical theatre.

ED JOSEPH, another Senior Speech major, takes his

fourth LTS assignment as Ionesco ' s manaical pro-
fessor . He has previously performed in SIX CHAR-
ACTERS, TOPAZE, and AGAMEMMON. He has been affil-
iated with the Ursuline College Drama Club in pro-
ductions of Tennessee Williams ' TALK TO ME LIKE THE
RAIN and LET ME LISTEN, and Dylan Thomas' UNDER
MILKWOOD . Last Spring he produced and directed Jean
Paul Sartre ' s 0 EXIT . He also plans a career in
the theatre .

MIKE SCHMITTDIEL, former Publicity Director for the

LTS, has been with the Society since his freshman
year. He has appeared in SIX CHARACTERS and TOPAZE,
and has served on the technical staff. After his
graduation in May, Mike plans graduate studies in
Speech and Communications theory.

7.
JON McK.E ZIE , a Ju nior Psychology ma j or, has a p-
peared a t Car r ol l in AGA.t"'!EMMO ' , and at Ursuli ne
College in U, DER MILKWOOD . l!c has a l so been
fealu r ed i n Room 1 .

CHRISTINE MOWE R is a Freshman Philo sophy major

making he r fi r sl a pp earance with t he LTS as t he
Maid in I onesco ' s THE LESSO . Sh e pe r fonned in
numerous pr oductions a t Regi na lli gh Sc hool pri or
Lo aL Lendi ng Ca r ro ll.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Little Thea tr e Soci e ty ex t e nd s it s wannes t

thanks to all those departme nl s and indivi dua l s --
too numerous to list here --wh o a s s i s t ed us i n
pres enting this production .

THE LESSON is produced by s pe cial arra ngeme nt with

Samuel French, Inc .

THE ZOO STORY i s produc ed by spe cial arrangement

with Dramatists Play Servic e , Inc . In accordanc e
with the ins true tions of the au thor, THE ZOO STORY
is staged only on the understanding that it will be
presented before a non-s egr egated a udi e nce .

Program cover c!esi_Kn _b y ELAINE GORSKI.

8.