Mr Gao, who lives in exile in Paris, has translated the French surrealist poets, as well as Ionesco and Becket.

ECONOMIST: The wanderer��s reward

On the way out, we discovered not only that we were both headed for the same residence hall but that we both lived on the eleventh floor like something out of an Ionesco play.

NEWYORKER: Sweetheart Sorrow

When the director Manoel de Oliveira wants to show that his elderly protagonist, Gilbert (Michel Piccoli), is an actor, he starts the film with fourteen minutes of a stage performance of a play by Ionesco (featuring Catherine Deneuve, in a cameo).

NEWYORKER: I'm Going Home