Rhinoceros at Jacksons Lane Theatre 24 – 26 June 2010

Rhinoceros

By Eugene Ionesco

Adapted by Martin Mooney (Theatre Kabosh)

Directed by Rob Vesty

Ground breaking news! CNN style reporters have come to cover the development of some extraordinary events taking place in a small French town.  One by one, people are turning into rhinoceroses.  Ooh la la!  “Of all things!”  What to say?  What to do?  Will any of the community survive this absurd transformation?  Will this be the end of the human race as we know it?  Or does one man have the will not to follow the herd?

Eugene Ionesco was one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd movement.  Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco’s plays depict in a tangible way the solitude of humans and the insignificance of one’s existence.  It is in this play that Ionesco most forcefully expresses his horror of ideological conformism, inspired by the rise of the fascist Iron Guard in Romania in the 1930s.

This adaptation plays heavily on the ridiculously funny turn of events as we meet a community coming to terms with the unbelievable.  Barmy!