This fascinating play is written in 1951 and is considered as one of Ionesco’s most important works. On a desert island an old couple lives. They are in their nineties. The man functions as a porter even though it is hard to imagine how this is possible in a tower on a desert island. The couple is expecting visitors, very prominent people, who are invited to hear a message the old man wants to pass on to the posterity at the end of his life – The fruit of a long life’s experiences. As he does not posses the capability of performing he has engaged a professional orator to recite the message. The guests arrive: They are neither to be seen nor to be heard but the old couple put chairs out for them and address them with an overload of polite phrases. Finally the emperor arrives and everything has been set for the orator. He arrives - and he is surprisingly a real person. Satisfied with the fact that his message will be proclaimed the old man and his wife throw themselves into the ocean. However, the message is never passed on because the orator is deaf-mute.
