One man stand against beastly neighbours

In Eugene Ionesco’s classic play, Rhinoceros, the hero must resist succumbing to the law of the jungle, says Colette Sheridan

A PLAY about mass hysteria and the danger of conformity runs at Cork City’s Everyman Palace Theatre, from Feb 20-25. Sligo-based Blue Raincoat Theatre Company is performing playwright Eugene Ionesco’s classic absurdist play, Rhinoceros, as part of a national tour. In the past, the company has brought Ionesco’s play, The Bald Soprano, to the venue.

Director, Niall Henry, says the Romanian-French Ionesco’s work is challenging. In Rhinoceros, the inhabitants of a small French town turn into rhinoceroses, apart from one character, Berenger, who clings to his humanity.

While there is a serious message in the play, written in 1959, Henry says that it is also “theatrically interesting. Ionesco was influenced by silent movies, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy, not unlike Beckett. He finds a fascinating way to tell a story. That’s the main attraction of the play. Ionesco was a big theatre person who acted a lot as well as directed and wrote. For him, the important thing was entertainment. His themes are never frivolous. They’re serious, but to the forefront of his mind the presentation had to be entertaining and exciting.”

Berenger is an everyman. The action starts in the town square, where the intellectual and hubristic Jean and the simplistic, kind-hearted and drunken Berenger meet in a cafe to discuss an unspecified important issue.

But instead of having their conversation, Jean becomes enraged at Berenger’s tardiness and drunkenness. He chastises him until a rhinoceros rampages across the square, followed by another rhinoceros, outraging the townspeople. The beginning of a mass movement is seen on stage as the people get together, arguing that the presence of the rhinos shouldn’t be permitted.

But one by one, the citizens turn into rhinoceroses too. When Berenger later visits Jean to apologise for the argument they had, Jean, initially against the rhinos, gradually grows more accommodating. His skin turns grey, a horn grows on his head and he begins to pace around his room like a caged beast. He then states that rhinoceroses have just as much of a right to life as humans. He declares that ‘humanism is dead, those who follow it are just old sentimentalists.’ Turning into a rhino, he chases Berenger out of his home. There is also a love story in this play. Berenger and a woman called Daisy declare their love for one another and vow to stand against the rhinoceroses. A row ignites, which becomes an argument about Daisy’s freedom to do what she wants, including the freedom to turn into a rhinoceros.

Tragedy ensues, causing Berenger to consider giving up and turning into a rhino. However, he is unable to metamorphose into one. He pulls himself together and vows that he will be the last man standing against the rhinos.

Berenger represents the point of view of the audience. “The audience has the same kinds of questions as the protagonist and is in the same predicament, so to speak,” says Henry.

Ionesco had a horror of ideological conformism. Berenger never bought into the status quo. “He is left alone in the world. This is important in order to make the play work,” says Henry.

But how are the characters physically transformed into rhinos? “Masks are used. Apart from that, I don’t want to give any more away.”

Over the 21 years since its inception, Blue Raincoat has toured extensively in Eastern Europe, putting on plays by Ionesco. “Theatre is big in Eastern Europe. We went to Sofia, in Bulgaria, where you’d have 50 or 60 people working in a theatre and a thousand people coming to see the show every night,” says Henry.

“The most amazing thing is that in the theatre in Eastern Europe, people’s mobile phones would be going off. It’s a bit like how we’d behave at a circus, with people leaving their seats to buy popcorn, laugh and scratch their heads. There is no formality about theatre. It’s an extraordinary experience.

“People go bananas in the best possible way. As insecure Irish people, your first instinct is to think the audience doesn’t like the play. But it’s nothing to do with that. It’s just the way things are.”

Henry says theatre is important in Eastern Europe because “it’s a great trade to get into. Also, it’s an easy forum in which to be subversive. That might change with the end of communism. All those Eastern European countries were so poor. Theatre is cheap to put on there and the base is strong.”

Irish audiences will enjoy the comedy in Rhinoceros, says Henry. “It’s a serious subject that’s treated in a totally bizarre, comic way. Ionesco was a huge entertainer.”