Tina Howe's Secret Surrealism: Walking a Tightrope

Abstract

On April 20, 1986 Tina Howe introduced from the stage of the New York City 92nd Street "Y" Eugene Ionesco, the speaker of the evening in the series of great writers' readings from their works organized by Shelley Mason. Howe was audibly excited, having met for the fIrst time her "idol" backstage. She began on a personal note with a brief vignette: in 1960, when she spent a year in Paris, having completed her B.A. at Sarah Lawrence, she wandered one evening into a tiny Left Bank theater, La Huchette, where The Bald Soprano was being performed. "It was as if I had been struck by lightning," the American dramatist told the audience in a loud stage whisper. She then went on to communicate her reaction to the show: "The curtain went up and all hell broke loose. I had not seen such goings on since the Marx Brothers movies. The sheer outrageousness of lonesco's dramatic sense and language, the way he turns things on their head. He is often called an absurdist to me he is the ultimate realist He shows us the laxness of reality and what a pathetic time we have getting through the day. For me it's the kitchen sink dramas and the formula comedies that are absurd because they present us with stereotypes, and not the real world."