Ionesco was a major figure in the literary movement known as the "Theatre of the Absurd." Alongside playwrights like Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard, and Sam Shepard, Ionesco used bizarre and starkly minimal plots in his plays as a way to explore questions about the nature of being alive. Playwrights working in this field often examine ideas about the meaning of existence and the collapse of communication.
One of the best-known works in this genre is Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. In the play, two elderly men, Vladimir and Estragon, stand by a tree and anxiously anticipate the arrival of their friend Godot. They have a lengthy conversation of negligible significance before encountering a man named Pozzo and his slave, Lucky. Lucky carries Pozzo's things and is bound by a rope. He does a dance at Pozzo's command and both he and Pozzo depart. Vladimir and Estragon wonder about what they have witnessed. Later a messenger from Godot says he will be arriving soon but not yet. The duo says that they will depart but do not. In the second act, they are continuing to wait. They meet Pozzo and Lucky again, discovering that they are now blind and mute, respectively. Neither of them recall the previous meeting with Vladimir and Estragon. Later, they reencounter the messenger, who says Godot will not be coming and that he is not the same messenger from before. They talk about committing suicide but realize they have no rope. They say they will look for rope, but then remain in the same place, unmoving. The play then concludes.
Another major work in this field is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. It focuses on two minor characters from the famous Shakespeare play, Hamlet, courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In contrast to the famously tragic Hamlet, Stoppard's play is strangely lighthearted, with the characters engaging in witty wordplay and humorously digressive conversation. The play begins with them betting on the outcome of various coin tosses. It progresses with the performance of a play-within-play and the king and queen's discussion of Hamlet's recent odd behavior. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then prepare for and later have a conversation with Hamlet, which proves to be of little value to them. The duo sees a dress rehearsal of the play in which their deaths are foreshadowed. Things take a turn for the worse when Polonius is murdered and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern accompany Hamlet to England. They are on a ship to England when they discover some of the actors from the play stowed away in barrels. Pirates attack the ship and they all hide in barrels. They discover a letter saying that they will be put to death instead of the prince, which shocks them as they thought they were of little consequence in court. They act out several death scenes on the ship before accepting their fates and walking offstage. The play ends with the announcement of their deaths.
Like these plays, The Chairs uses a strange and simple scenario to explore existential dilemmas. By understanding the context in which Ionesco's play came into being, a reader can better make sense of what he is up to. The Chairs features many of the same thematic and structural elements as these plays and focuses similarly on slippage and faults in language. The off-kilter tone of all of these works hinges on the comical exploration of otherwise extremely serious themes.
