The Lesson

Feb. 22-March 18, $18, L'Etage, 624 S. Sixth St., 215-285-0472, idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.com.

by Mark Cofta

THEATER

The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium — which is fun to say after a cocktail or six — brings more "good nothingness to life," as its slogan promises, with a rare production of Eugene Ionesco's The Lesson, featuring Tom Byrn, Jane Moore and Kate Black-Regan. The seldom-seen absurdist play typifies Ionesco's seemingly banal but actually pointed expression of the futility of communication, tangibly depicting the solitude and insignificance of human existence — but don't fear, it's funny! Scholar Rosette Lamont called Ionesco's work "metaphysical farce," in which comedy makes philosophical thought and political criticism more palatable. Ionesco once said, "I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragoon [sic] and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theater and it is the place where one dares the least." He'd be pleased with IRC, a daring little company whose seven productions since 2006 have included rarities by Samuel Beckett, Christopher Durang and the staff of The Onion. But don't expect any tortoises on Ionesco's fanciful wish list upstairs at L'Etage: "A work of art," the great man said, "is above all an adventure of the mind."

Feb. 22-March 18, $18, L'Etage, 624 S. Sixth St., 215-285-0472, idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.com.