Rhinoceros (play)
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Rhinoceros (French original title Rhinocéros) is a play by Eugène Ionesco, written in 1959. The play belongs to the school of drama known as the Theatre of the Absurd. Over the course of three acts, the inhabitants of a small, provincial French town turn into rhinoceroses; ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure who is often criticized throughout the play for his drinking and tardiness. The play is often read as a response to the sudden upsurge of Communism, Fascism and Nazism during the events preceding World War II, and explores the themes of conformity, culture, philosophy, and morality.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
This piece is divided into three acts, each showing a stage in the onset of rhinoceritis.
[edit] Act I
Loose rhinos cause the first shock and surprise the characters. Jean can't believe what he saw was real and states "it should not exist." The grocer lets out a cry of fury when he sees the housekeeper leave with her bloodied cat: "We can not allow our cats to be crushed by rhinos or anything else." As with the start of any extremist movement, people are initially afraid.
[edit] Act II
People are beginning to turn into rhinos and to follow the rhinoceritis movement. This is where the first opposition is clearly made, as Botard remarks that it is "a nonsense story," "It is a shameful machination". He does not believe that rhinoceritis is real . Yet, he too will turn into a rhino despite these prejudices, saying that even the most resistant are misled by the rhetoric of the dictatorship. People are starting to turn into rhinoceros: in the case of Mr. Bœuf, followed by his wife: "I can not leave him like that," she said to justify herself. The firefighters are overwhelmed by the increasing number of rhinos in the city.
Jean, at first concerned and disturbed by the presence of rhinos in the city, transforms into a rhino under the desperate eyes of his friend Bérenger. Thus we witness the metamorphosis of a human being into a rhino. Jean is at first sick and pale, he grows a bump on his forehead, breathes loudly and has a tendency to growl. He then gets greener and greener and his skin begins to harden, his veins become prominent, his voice becomes hoarse, and his bump grows into a horn. Jean stops his friend from calling a doctor, he paces in his room like a caged beast, his voice becomes more and more hoarse and he starts bellowing. According to him, there is nothing extraordinary in the fact that Bœuf had become a rhinoceros, "After all, rhinos are creatures like us, who have a right to life just like us". He who was so learned, so well-read, suddenly proclaims "Humanism has expired! You are an old ridiculous sentimentalist."
[edit] Act III
Finally, everyone becomes a rhinoceros, including Daisy Dudard (a co-worker and a "scientist"). Bérenger is the only one not to find rhinoceritis normal. He panics and revolts against rhinoceritis. Dudard trivializes the transformation and she becomes a rhino because her duty is "to follow [her] leaders and [her] peers, for better or for worse." Daisy refuses to "save the world" and follows the rhinos, suddenly finding them beautiful, as she admires their enthusiasm and energy. After much hesitation, Bérenger decides not to surrender: "I am the last man, I will stay till the end! I do not give up!"
[edit] Trivia
In a meta-theatrical twist, the play contains an ironic self-reference:
JEAN: [to BERENGER] Instead of squandering all your spare money on drink, isn't it better to buy a ticket for an interesting play? Do you know anything about the avant-garde theatre there's so much talk about? Have you seen Ionesco's plays?
BERENGER: [to JEAN] Unfortunately, no. I've only heard people talk about them. (...)
JEAN: [to BERENGER] There's one playing now. [both JEAN and BERINGER turn to face the audience and stare, breaking the fourth wall] Take advantage of it.
- Rhinoceros and other plays. Ionesco, tr. Derek Prouse. Grove Press, Inc., New York (1960).
Austin Pendleton's play, Orson's Shadow, which is based on an actual 1960 production of Rhinoceros in London, comically depicts how director Orson Welles and stars Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright had difficulty working together.
[edit] Adaptations
The play was adapted for a 1973 film (also called Rhinoceros) directed by Tom O'Horgan and starring Zero Mostel as John (Jean in the play), Gene Wilder as Stanley (Berenger) and Karen Black as Daisy.
The play was also adapted for a 1990 musical, titled Born Again at the Chichester Festival Theatre, by Peter Hall, Julian Barry and composer Jason Carr. For this the setting was relocated to an American shopping mall.
The 2008 comedy horror film Zombie Strippers purports to be an adaptation of the play, but with zombies instead of rhinoceros.[1]
The play was modernized and moved to an Unnamed North American city in 2008 by the Acadia Theatre Company of Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada.
The play, under the name of Kargadan, has been adapted by the Iranian actor and director Farhad Ayeesh and has been on scene for approximately two months.
[edit] References
- ^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (2008-04-18). "Zombie Strippers". The Hollywood Reporter (Nielsen Business Media). http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=10983. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
[edit] External links
- Rhinoceros: Thick-skinned Phenomenon
- Rhinoceros study guide
- Rhinoceros (film)
- Musical Version of Rhinoceros
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