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 and criticism to the sudden upsurge of Communism, Fascism and Nazism during the events preceding World War II, and explores the themes of conformity, culture, mass movements, philosophy and morality.
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The play starts in the town square of a small, unnamed French village. Two friends; the eloquent, intellectual but incredibly prideful Jean and the simplistic, shy, kind-hearted drunkard Berenger; meet up in a coffee house to talk about an unspecified urgent matter. Instead of talking about what they were supposed to, Jean becomes furious at Berenger's tardiness and drunken state and berates him until a rhinoceros rampages across the square, considerably startling the people there. The people there begin to discuss what has happened when another rhinoceros appears and crushes a woman's cat. This generates incredible outrage and people begin to band together to argue that the presence of these rhinos should not be allowed. The beginning of a mass movement is seen onstage.
Berenger arrives late for work at the local newspaper office, but the newspaper's receptionist Daisy (whom Berenger is in love with), covers for him. At the office, an argument has broken out between the sensitive and logical Dudard and the violent, temperamental Botard; since Botard does not believe a rhinoceros could actually appear in France despite all the claims by eyewitnesses that one did.
Suddenly, Mrs. Bœuf (the wife of a local tradseman) appears to say that her husband has turned into a rhinoceros and that streets are plagued with people who have turned into them. Botard argues against the existence of the so called rhinoceritis movement that Mrs. Bœuf claims is occurring, saying that the local people are too intelligent to be tricked by the empty rhetorics of a mass movement. Despite this, Mr. Bœuf (turned into a rhinoceros) arrives and destroys the staircase that leads out of the office, trapping all the workers and their boss, Mr. Papillion, inside. Mrs. Bœuf joins her husband by jumping down the stair-hole and also turns into a rhinoceros while the office-workers escape through a window.
Berenger goes to visit Jean in order to apologize for the previous day's argument they had, but finds him in bed, heavy with a sickness he has never had. The two friends begin to argue again, initially about the possibility of people actually turning into rhinos and then about the morality of the transformations. Jean is initially staunchly against the rhinos, but gradually grows lenient. As the scene progresses, Jean's skin turns greyer and greyer, the bumps in his head grow into a horn, his voice grows hoarse and he begins to pace around his apartment like a caged beast. Finally, he prolcaims that rhinoceros have just as much of a right to life as humans and that "Humanism is dead, those who follow it are just old sentimentalists" before he turns into a rhino himself and chases Berenger out of his apartment.
Everyone in town has succumbed to rhinoceritis save for Berenger, Dudard and Daisy. Berenger is locked up in his apartment, yelling at the rhinos that rush by for having destroyed civilization until Dudard arrives to check on him. Dudard trivializes the transformations by saying that people have the right to choose what they do, even transform; but Berenger insists that the transformations couldn't be voluntary since his friend Jean had initially hated the rhinos and that he was probably brainwashed. Dudard counterargues that people can change their minds and gradually grows more accepting until he concludes that he must "follow [his] peers and [his] leaders" before departing and turning into a rhino.
Daisy arrives to make dinner for Berenger, but is deeply shaken to find Berenger in his state of despair. She admits her love for him, which brings Berenger out of his panic by saying he loves her too. They vow to stay together and stand out against rhinoceritis even if it turns out to be irreversible, but Daisy says she must check on her mother to see if she has turned or not. Berenger does not want her to leave and they have an argument that's initially about her freedom to do what she likes but gradually evolves into freedom in general and then the freedom to transform into a rhino. Daisy leaves in a fit of rage and is crushed by the rhinos outside.
Berenger is devastated at witnessing her death and flies into another panic in which he considers just giving up and joining the rhinos; he tries to turn into one of them but is unable to and bursts into tears at his inability to convert. After a brief moment of doubt, Berenger recomposes and vows to himself that he will be the last man standing against rhinoceritis. He gets his courage once again and returns to hurling insult at the passing rhinos.
In a meta-theatrical twist, the play contains a 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 BERENGER 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.
The play was adapted to an urban American setting 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 Wolfville, Nova Scotia 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.
Adishakti Theatre in Pondichéri India performed it as one of four plays in their "retrospective" at the Prithvi Theatre Festival in Mumbai Nov09, and for the Indian National School of Drama's (NSD) Utsav Festival in Delhi on 15Jan10
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