On Oct. 2, Saint Louis University’s Theatre will be kicking off its 2009-2010 season with Eugéne Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano”. What can audiences expect from the performance? Nothing they’ve ever seen before.

To the casual viewer, the play is simply absurd. Ionesco takes a common event (a couple visiting their friends) and turns it on its head by placing over-the-top characters in a setting where time and language lose their meaning. Going into the play, it helps to know how “The Bald Soprano” came about.

While teaching himself English, Ionesco realized that the more simple phrases were written-‘the ceiling is up,’ for example-the less meaning they seemed to hold. He wrote “The Bald Soprano” as a comment on the use of language, as well as a parody of bourgeois life and the structure of English society. The plot and its topsy-turvy turning of cultural normalcy is what director Tom Martin describes as “a cookie cutter of what you would expect in absurdist theatre.”

Having this knowledge of the play, Martin hopes that the audience will still find the play ridiculous, but will hopefully have a greater appreciation of its absurdity.

According to Martin, audiences watching “The Bald Soprano” can expect a play that is very funny and completely entertaining from start to finish, while also pointing out themes of identity, conformity and communication. SLU Theatre chose to approach this theme visually.

“[Audiences can expect] a homogenized world, with everybody becoming the same thing, turning into each other and their surroundings,” Martin said.

Since this is a play that strives to use the absurd to bring light to larger issues, casting is an very crucial for