THE LESSON by Eugene Ionesco translated by Donald Watson at the Hope Theatre The Hope theatre is host to the most wonderfully ridiculous play by Eugene Ionesco the master of the absurd comedy and violent idiocy. This is a beautifully organised piece of Theatre in this tiny theatre room. The set is a raised platform of black and white tiles with just a table and two chairs. Roger Alborough, a face well known to TV audiences and to theatregoers alike plays The Professor. A man who knows everything and who cannot understand why The Pupil cannot work out what is known by subtraction and yet can by a simple act of memory give the answer to the most complicated arithmetical problems involving Milliions, billions and trillions of numbers He embarks on Philology although warned by his maid that it is dangerous. This character is wonderfully interpreted by Joan Porter and one doesn’t realise at the very beginning of the play when she is cleaning the room to make it fit for the student’s lesson what her function is within Ionisco’s fevered brain. The student is played by Sheetal Kapoor and she gives a perfectly timed performance in her scenes with Alborough. Their timing of the scenes is something that any playwright would die for. Some of the audience become hysterical with laughter, The production is incredibly funny and yet full of violence and horror at the same time.. The lighting by Chris McDonnell and the sound by Simon Arrowsmith help to make this a stunning professional production directed by a man who has been in love with the play ever since he first discovered it at University. Matthew Parker has given us his own flash of brilliance..