Inonesco’s The Lesson premiered in National Theatre TIRANA,

May 17 – The Lesson, a one-act play by Romanian-French playwright Eug鯥 Ionesco made its premiere on Thursday at the National Theatre in Tirana as a French-Albanian cooperation. Directed by Frantz Helmer, the play of the “Theatre of the Absurd” brought on stage Albanian actors Vasjan Lami, Marsela Lena and Natasha Sela. The play staged in cooperation with the French Alliance in Tirana and the cultural service of the French embassy, appeals against communism and dictatorship. “This part has its echo and message even in Albania where the communist dictatorship oppressed, persecuted and killed its own people for decades,” the Theatre said in a statement. The play will also be staged in Tirana on May 20, 21, and 22 before moving to the cities Korca, Elbasan, Shkodra and Berat from May 25 to June 3. The Lesson was first performed in 1951 in a production directed by Marcel Cuvelier. Since 1957 it has been in permanent production at Paris’ Thꣴre de la Huchette, on an Ionesco double-bill with The Bald Soprano. The play has been regarded as an important work of what some critics have called the “Theatre of the Absurd.” A Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, Eug鯥 Ionesco was one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco’s plays depict in a tangible way the solitude and insignificance of human existence.