The Killer (play)

Berenger leaves the radiant city after Dany, a woman he falls in love with instantly and believes that he is engaged to, is murdered, and he spends much of the play tracking down the killer.

At the end of the play, he encounters the killer, a small man and by all appearances Berenger’s physical inferior.

Berenger's learning of the killer reflects Ionesco’s feeling of disappointment at the end of his transcendent experience.

[citation needed] In an interview with Claude Bonnefoy [fr; ro], Ionesco said of the killer in the "radiant city": "It's the fall, it's original sin, in other words, a slackening of attention, of the strength with which one looks at things; or again in other words, it's losing the faculty of wonderment; oblivion; the paralysis bred by habit."

[1] A radio version of Tueur sans gages titled Killer, adapted by Dan Rebellato and directed by Polly Thomas, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 18 April 2021,[2] with Toby Jones as "Sam Barringer", Christine Bottomley as "Dani" and Toby Hadoke as "The Killer".