Wye Theatre Company celebrates its Diamond Jubilee with a touch of the absurd (From Hereford Times)

Wye Theatre Company celebrates its Diamond Jubilee with a touch of the absurd

4:30pm Friday 11th May 2012 in Theatre & Comedy

THE Queen isn’t the only one with a Diamond Jubilee this year – it is also 60 years since the Y Players, now the Wye Theatre Company, was set up.

They’re celebrating in characteristic style with two thought-provoking and challenging plays by the master of Theatre of the Absurd, Eugène Ionesco.

The Bald Soprano is described as an “anti-play”, which Ionesco wrote after trying to learn English by learning whole sentences. It struck him that this was ridiculous as he was learning things he already knew, such as “there are seven days in the week” and “the ceiling is up and the floor is down”.

The second play, The Lesson, is a dark comedy in which a professor endeavours to teach a new student arithmetic and philology, much against the advice of his maid. There are unexpected consequences as the professor gets more and more agitated at the student’s inability to understand what he is talking about.

The plays are unexpectedly funny and anyone who enjoys Monty Python, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and other writers of the Absurdist genre will relish the opportunity to see these two unusual pieces.

The Lesson and The Bald Soprano will play at The Powell Theatre, Church Street, Hereford, from Wednesday until May 19 at 7.30pm.

Tickets are available from The Outback, Church Street or online at wyetheatre.co.uk.