Synopsis
"English bourgeois interior with English armchairs. English evening. Mr Smith, English, in his English armchair, wearing English slippers, smoking his English pipe and reading an English newspaper by an English fireplace with an English fire burning. He wears English glasses, a grey English moustache. Next to him, in another English armchair, Mrs Smith, an Englishwoman, mends English stockings. Prolonged moment of English silence. Seventeen English beats of the English pendulum."
Mr and Mrs Smith, a traditional London family, have Mr and Mrs Martin as their guests for dinner. The fire captain will surprise them with his visit, particularly their housekeeper, Mary, who turns out to be an acquaintance of his.
The pendulum, a representation of time, never shows the time as it should, but even stops from time to time and reveals momente dintr-o lume blocată în vremea lui Caragiale.
What is really absurd? Ionesco's text, the people of yesteryear, the people of today, the people of tomorrow? Or...
I think existence is absurd. I don't think life is absurd. History is not absurd but logical. It can be explained. We can say why things happen. It is not within existence that there is absurdity, but existence itself seems impossible to me. – Eugène Ionesco