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Rhinoceros and Other Plays
In Rhinoceros, as in his early plays, Ionesco startles audiences with a world that invariably erupts in explosive laughter and nightmare anxiety. A rhinoceros suddely apears in a small town, tramping through its peaceful streets. Soon there are two, then three, until the "movement" is universal: a transformation of average citizens into beasts, as they learn to "move with the times." Finally, only one man remains. "I'm the last man left, and I'm staying that way until the end. I'm not capitulating!"
Rhinoceros is a commentary on the absurdity of the human condition made tolerable only by self-delusion. It shows us the struggle of the individual to maintain integrity and identity alone in a world where all others have succumbed to the "beauty" of brute force, natural energy and mindlessness.
141 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
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About the author
Eugène Ionesco
458 books957 followersEugène Ionesco, born Eugen Ionescu, was a Romanian playwright and dramatist; one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict in a tangible way the solitude and insignificance of human existence.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
May 15, 2025
GUESS WHAT, FOLKS? BEHIND OUR BACKS - WHILE WE WERE SLEEPING - THESE GROSS, ARMOURED, RAMPAGING ANIMALS WERE MULTIPLYING...
Who ARE these Rhinos, for Ionesco? My guess is that they're simply the fascist revenge for the fact of Relativity - which, alas, includes Moral Relativity.
Now, as many of you know, I believe that God is love in the form of pure being.
And that faith right at the outset of adulthood made me human-all-too-human, as Nietzsche says.
But now it has made me relax into the general peace of unvarnished simplicity, within the more jarringly complex, though still human-all-too-human affectivity I had previously known.
That too-human over-complex affectivity got me into loads of trouble in my life, like it did to the character Berenger. And Berenger is Ionesco’s doppelgänger.
Robert Craft, in one of his memoirs of the sixties, describes Ionesco as an exceptionally maladroit intellectual who sometimes had to sit on his hands at dinner parties to avoid letting them give his feelings away.
I, too, being blessed (yes, blessed!) with Asperger’s Syndrome from an early age, always hid my feelings to avoid being sucked into my interlocutors’ garden paths.
At times, in compliance with more authoritative folks’ draconian demands on me, I was compelled by law to allow them to force changes within myself.
Which never worked, Deo gratias.
Put it down to my elderly soporific sloth, lassitude, and pensiveness, which was the undoing of my conditioning, for it never worked.
One very good reason the rules never worked with me is my faith in a steadily loving God.
And that love has now more positively encouraged the insight in me that God doesn’t much like rhinos.
For the rhinos are the Pharisees who brought charges against Him, and the crafty money changers whom He drove out the Temple - and our modern social conditioners.
I believe He forgives them, but that they must nonetheless pay for their deeply entrenched habits and their leading others onto their questionable garden paths.
But guys like the central character of the play, Berenger, believe in a nonresisting variety of love and forbearance, and will get off more lightly.
But even the concept of Hell, as Pope Francis has on occasion implied, may be only that - a concept. Who knows what dreams may come? Still, concepts kill.
And more to the point, hey, look - if God is love, maybe judgement itself is simply and very naturally implied as such in, for example the famous words in scripture, “they (obviously, being Rhinos) will (simply) not enter into My Rest.”
Cause if a raging rhino would be forcibly excluded by dint of good taste from a pricey social event, it sure as heck won’t be allowed near Heaven!
And will just be left eternally all alone in its smoking rage...
But, you know, we ALL have a raging rhino within us, dying to transform us into its own image. And own irrational impulses, given credence, can convict us. Salvation is a double-edged sword.
We must BEAR that Rhino.
For he is the beginning of Necessary Purgatorial Pain, and Salvation!
We have to be like Berenger and fill our lives with constant simplicity, candour and love.
Those three are the Best Available Rhino Repellents…
And God gives them to us for FREE.
Who ARE these Rhinos, for Ionesco? My guess is that they're simply the fascist revenge for the fact of Relativity - which, alas, includes Moral Relativity.
Now, as many of you know, I believe that God is love in the form of pure being.
And that faith right at the outset of adulthood made me human-all-too-human, as Nietzsche says.
But now it has made me relax into the general peace of unvarnished simplicity, within the more jarringly complex, though still human-all-too-human affectivity I had previously known.
That too-human over-complex affectivity got me into loads of trouble in my life, like it did to the character Berenger. And Berenger is Ionesco’s doppelgänger.
Robert Craft, in one of his memoirs of the sixties, describes Ionesco as an exceptionally maladroit intellectual who sometimes had to sit on his hands at dinner parties to avoid letting them give his feelings away.
I, too, being blessed (yes, blessed!) with Asperger’s Syndrome from an early age, always hid my feelings to avoid being sucked into my interlocutors’ garden paths.
At times, in compliance with more authoritative folks’ draconian demands on me, I was compelled by law to allow them to force changes within myself.
Which never worked, Deo gratias.
Put it down to my elderly soporific sloth, lassitude, and pensiveness, which was the undoing of my conditioning, for it never worked.
One very good reason the rules never worked with me is my faith in a steadily loving God.
And that love has now more positively encouraged the insight in me that God doesn’t much like rhinos.
For the rhinos are the Pharisees who brought charges against Him, and the crafty money changers whom He drove out the Temple - and our modern social conditioners.
I believe He forgives them, but that they must nonetheless pay for their deeply entrenched habits and their leading others onto their questionable garden paths.
But guys like the central character of the play, Berenger, believe in a nonresisting variety of love and forbearance, and will get off more lightly.
But even the concept of Hell, as Pope Francis has on occasion implied, may be only that - a concept. Who knows what dreams may come? Still, concepts kill.
And more to the point, hey, look - if God is love, maybe judgement itself is simply and very naturally implied as such in, for example the famous words in scripture, “they (obviously, being Rhinos) will (simply) not enter into My Rest.”
Cause if a raging rhino would be forcibly excluded by dint of good taste from a pricey social event, it sure as heck won’t be allowed near Heaven!
And will just be left eternally all alone in its smoking rage...
But, you know, we ALL have a raging rhino within us, dying to transform us into its own image. And own irrational impulses, given credence, can convict us. Salvation is a double-edged sword.
We must BEAR that Rhino.
For he is the beginning of Necessary Purgatorial Pain, and Salvation!
We have to be like Berenger and fill our lives with constant simplicity, candour and love.
Those three are the Best Available Rhino Repellents…
And God gives them to us for FREE.
February 8, 2024
Creo que empiezo a entender a Ionesco, lo cual no es poco para mí. Los mecanismos de su teatro, del teatro del absurdo del que fue precursor junto con otro gigante como Beckett. No solo comienzo a entenderlo, sino que aunque parezca extraño lo disfruto. Cada lectura de este género es una aventura. ¿Qué quieren decirte? La historia suele mutar, o al menos tu haces mutar la interpretación, siempre hay algo que no acabas de entender. “Ahora esto.. ¿Qué significa?...” En una palabra, no estás tranquilo en ningún momento de la narración.
En esta historia en concreto, la obra arranca con una presencia increíble y totalmente improvisada, que rompe la tranquilidad de todos los que están en la plaza de una ciudad, salvo la de un personaje llamado Berenguer. Berenguer es un existencialista bebedor que se le hace una carga la vida, algo demasiado duro, según le ha reconocido de inicio a su amigo presumido Juan.
“(…) Juan: ¿Tienes miedo de qué?
Berenguer: No sé muy bien. Angustias difíciles de definir. No me siento a gusto en la existencia, entre la gente, entonces tomo un vaso. Eso me calma, me distiende, olvido.(…)”
Una presencia sorpresiva, un rinoceronte en plena ciudad ¿Qué significa esa presencia, o las prisas de todos por apartarse de la fiera (aparte del evidente peligro)? ¿Qué significa la actitud indolente y pasiva de Berenguer? Para mí el rinoceronte con 10 páginas leídas, significaba necesariamente la MUERTE (avanzo que estaba confundido). Todos se apartan a su paso; nadie quiere pensar en ella, salvo aquel al que le da todo igual; pero de pronto se manifiesta de forma intempestiva y ahí se ha roto la calma, la apariencia y la voluntad.
“(…) Juan: Si me estimas, por qué me contradices pretendiendo que no es peligroso dejar correr a un rinoceronte por pleno centro de la ciudad, sobre todo un domingo por la mañana, cuando las calles están llenas de niños... y también de adultos...
Berenguer: Muchos están en misa. Esos no se arriesgan a nada...(…)”
Mucho simbolismo en poco texto, la religión lo tapa todo, lo cubre todo y nos protege de todo, nos echamos esa manta encima y fuera los problemas filosóficos sobre la vida o el destino.
Comienzan los recursos de serie de Ionesco: los personajes hablan con frases hechas, cháchara para llenar los huecos (la vida), con repeticiones que hacen unos y otros, las mismas expresiones repetidas una y otra vez: “esta sí que es buena” “esta sí que es buena” “¿que me dicen de eso?”; conversaciones tontas cruzadas entre todos los protagonistas, conversaciones intrascendentes y sin sentido, todos cruzan conversaciones ridículas tratando de calmarse, sus pequeñas miserias; todos se alarman de inicio y cruzan conversaciones ridículas, dicen expresiones recurrentes, todos los protagonistas menos Berenguer.
Tras el susto de inicio, rápidamente todos volverán a sus rutinas, sin más. No aprenden, no sacan conclusiones. Y la historia va mutando, y mi interpretación de la historia también.
En el segundo acto sale un nuevo personaje Botard, ese sí que es un escéptico de verdad, que duda de la propia presencia de rinocerontes y de todas las instituciones, del periodismo, de todas las noticias. También se produce una transformación en la historia iniciando la presencia de más y más rinocerontes y ... no cuento más.
Una vez más ¿Qué significa ahora esto? Ya no es esa presencia de la muerte que pensaba antes. Pudiera ser una alienación social que sigue unos cánones de conducta, el buen tono de la sociedad, las pautas religiosas, etc. No descubriré más, dejando la interpretación a cada cual.
Los tipos descreídos y atormentados, sufridores, siguen en su propio infierno en vida, el propio Botard y desde luego Berenguer. Sin embargo, los sumisos y dóciles…
Influencias: Ionesco y Beckett eran coetáneos, se influenciaban mutuamente; ese teatro del absurdo que entre ambos retroalimentan. También veo clara influencia de Kafka, de La metamorfosis, en concreto. Como decía al inicio, leer a estos autores es toda una aventura, una experiencia lectora y un reto que siempre me gusta afrontar.
En esta historia en concreto, la obra arranca con una presencia increíble y totalmente improvisada, que rompe la tranquilidad de todos los que están en la plaza de una ciudad, salvo la de un personaje llamado Berenguer. Berenguer es un existencialista bebedor que se le hace una carga la vida, algo demasiado duro, según le ha reconocido de inicio a su amigo presumido Juan.
“(…) Juan: ¿Tienes miedo de qué?
Berenguer: No sé muy bien. Angustias difíciles de definir. No me siento a gusto en la existencia, entre la gente, entonces tomo un vaso. Eso me calma, me distiende, olvido.(…)”
Una presencia sorpresiva, un rinoceronte en plena ciudad ¿Qué significa esa presencia, o las prisas de todos por apartarse de la fiera (aparte del evidente peligro)? ¿Qué significa la actitud indolente y pasiva de Berenguer? Para mí el rinoceronte con 10 páginas leídas, significaba necesariamente la MUERTE (avanzo que estaba confundido). Todos se apartan a su paso; nadie quiere pensar en ella, salvo aquel al que le da todo igual; pero de pronto se manifiesta de forma intempestiva y ahí se ha roto la calma, la apariencia y la voluntad.
“(…) Juan: Si me estimas, por qué me contradices pretendiendo que no es peligroso dejar correr a un rinoceronte por pleno centro de la ciudad, sobre todo un domingo por la mañana, cuando las calles están llenas de niños... y también de adultos...
Berenguer: Muchos están en misa. Esos no se arriesgan a nada...(…)”
Mucho simbolismo en poco texto, la religión lo tapa todo, lo cubre todo y nos protege de todo, nos echamos esa manta encima y fuera los problemas filosóficos sobre la vida o el destino.
Comienzan los recursos de serie de Ionesco: los personajes hablan con frases hechas, cháchara para llenar los huecos (la vida), con repeticiones que hacen unos y otros, las mismas expresiones repetidas una y otra vez: “esta sí que es buena” “esta sí que es buena” “¿que me dicen de eso?”; conversaciones tontas cruzadas entre todos los protagonistas, conversaciones intrascendentes y sin sentido, todos cruzan conversaciones ridículas tratando de calmarse, sus pequeñas miserias; todos se alarman de inicio y cruzan conversaciones ridículas, dicen expresiones recurrentes, todos los protagonistas menos Berenguer.
Tras el susto de inicio, rápidamente todos volverán a sus rutinas, sin más. No aprenden, no sacan conclusiones. Y la historia va mutando, y mi interpretación de la historia también.
En el segundo acto sale un nuevo personaje Botard, ese sí que es un escéptico de verdad, que duda de la propia presencia de rinocerontes y de todas las instituciones, del periodismo, de todas las noticias. También se produce una transformación en la historia iniciando la presencia de más y más rinocerontes y ... no cuento más.
Una vez más ¿Qué significa ahora esto? Ya no es esa presencia de la muerte que pensaba antes. Pudiera ser una alienación social que sigue unos cánones de conducta, el buen tono de la sociedad, las pautas religiosas, etc. No descubriré más, dejando la interpretación a cada cual.
Los tipos descreídos y atormentados, sufridores, siguen en su propio infierno en vida, el propio Botard y desde luego Berenguer. Sin embargo, los sumisos y dóciles…
Influencias: Ionesco y Beckett eran coetáneos, se influenciaban mutuamente; ese teatro del absurdo que entre ambos retroalimentan. También veo clara influencia de Kafka, de La metamorfosis, en concreto. Como decía al inicio, leer a estos autores es toda una aventura, una experiencia lectora y un reto que siempre me gusta afrontar.
October 22, 2021
It's hard for me to put myself in the position of a well-read theatre goer in the early 1960s when Rhinoceros and the other plays in this collection were originally performed. The references to collaboration with Nazis in France and Romania, as extreme forms of conformity, must have been more obvious. Rhinoceros was something of a hit, attracting Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, and Maggie Smith, under the direction of Orson Welles, to its 1960 London production, and Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Jean Stapleton, and Zero Mostel to the 1961 Broadway production, for which Mostel won a Tony. If you decide to read these, or watch a production, I'd recommend doing a fair amount of background reading first. I did not, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching extended Monty Python routines in my head. It wasn't all bad, but I felt like I was missing a lot.
June 11, 2017
Rhinoceros.
How can you pass up a title like that?
Ionesco, a man who spent his life in Romania and France, is an exceptional writer.
This collection was of his plays, but he writes prose and poety also.
There were three or four plays in this collection, but the most outrageous one was ‘Rhinoceros.’
It can be understood on many levels.
We can find several sentiments that recur throughout these four plays.
His thought carriage contains; a disdain for material things, a lack of trust in the communication process, an agitated awareness of banality, a need for solitude at times, the absolute absurdity of the human disease, a distaste for ideological conformity, a lucid reduction of reality that is both frightening and fantastic, and much more.
Is ‘Rhinoceros’ an allegory or sorts about Nazism, which he lived through? Is it a declaration or a refutation of this system which must subvert free will to allow the killing machine to work? And how did the victims rationalize away their free thought and systematically allow themselves to take fatal showers and chose the suicidal paths created for them?
Remember Ceaușescu? Have you ever seen that crazy and ridiculous government building he created in Bucharest? The second largest edifice of its kind in the world, the Pentagon is first. I wondered how Ionesco perceived this while reading him and I am fairly sure I could surmise his impression.
Or are his plays just plain funny and witty and enjoyable?
They are both, and that is what may elevate this author to limited oxygenated heights.
A real treasure regardless of how you would like to interpret it.
How can you pass up a title like that?
Ionesco, a man who spent his life in Romania and France, is an exceptional writer.
This collection was of his plays, but he writes prose and poety also.
There were three or four plays in this collection, but the most outrageous one was ‘Rhinoceros.’
It can be understood on many levels.
We can find several sentiments that recur throughout these four plays.
His thought carriage contains; a disdain for material things, a lack of trust in the communication process, an agitated awareness of banality, a need for solitude at times, the absolute absurdity of the human disease, a distaste for ideological conformity, a lucid reduction of reality that is both frightening and fantastic, and much more.
Is ‘Rhinoceros’ an allegory or sorts about Nazism, which he lived through? Is it a declaration or a refutation of this system which must subvert free will to allow the killing machine to work? And how did the victims rationalize away their free thought and systematically allow themselves to take fatal showers and chose the suicidal paths created for them?
Remember Ceaușescu? Have you ever seen that crazy and ridiculous government building he created in Bucharest? The second largest edifice of its kind in the world, the Pentagon is first. I wondered how Ionesco perceived this while reading him and I am fairly sure I could surmise his impression.
Or are his plays just plain funny and witty and enjoyable?
They are both, and that is what may elevate this author to limited oxygenated heights.
A real treasure regardless of how you would like to interpret it.
September 7, 2017
Rhinoceros is a brilliant allegorical theater play, subversive of social pressure, mass brainwash and animalism. The advocacy not to conform to an animalistic society puts the audience to a great moral test. Some of the questions that arise during this magnificent work of literature are: To conform or not to conform? To rebel or not to rebel? It makes one wonder about one’s own role in society and about the madness of the social rank. Brilliant.
April 17, 2016
Wow. How is it that I never read Rhinoceros before? I had a college professor recommend it to me and ignored her. Regret doesn’t quite capture how I feel now. But at least I found it after all these years. Rhinoceros is about conformity and uniformity in all their possible guises—political, social, cultural, commercial, religious, artistic: you name it—and how they can creep up and overtake society before people take notice; before it is too late. The imagery and pace of Ionesco’s writing doesn’t allow the reader to look away.
Two short plays complete this volume. The Leader is a farce about sycophantic admiration that has the feel of a surreal Bob & Ray sketch set in a totalitarian state. The Future Is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World is a weird, funny, tale of two families chattering their generations that has the feel of an LSD-laced Hee-Haw sketch ending with a serious point about humanity.
Two short plays complete this volume. The Leader is a farce about sycophantic admiration that has the feel of a surreal Bob & Ray sketch set in a totalitarian state. The Future Is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World is a weird, funny, tale of two families chattering their generations that has the feel of an LSD-laced Hee-Haw sketch ending with a serious point about humanity.
February 8, 2024
My father suggested that I read this play in the late summer of 1983. I was not quite thirteen years old, and had already begun to have great difficulty socially due to my innate abhorrence of mindless conformity and complete disregard of so-called "peer pressure". I don't know what my old man was thinking, but as hard as this is to believe, I'm pretty sure he was not expecting that after reading this play I would be encouraged to be even more stubborn and flagrant in my eccentricity...
Every young person who feels like a misfit or an outcast should read this play and take heart- as a punk rock band (whose name I don't remember) said, circa 1987: "Most People Are Dicks!". What I'm trying to say is that Ionesco's message in "Rhinoceros" is: BE TRUE TO YOURSELF; DON'T BE A LEMMING- CONFORMITY IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD TOTALITARIANISM!!!
Every young person who feels like a misfit or an outcast should read this play and take heart- as a punk rock band (whose name I don't remember) said, circa 1987: "Most People Are Dicks!". What I'm trying to say is that Ionesco's message in "Rhinoceros" is: BE TRUE TO YOURSELF; DON'T BE A LEMMING- CONFORMITY IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD TOTALITARIANISM!!!
March 6, 2017
Delightfully absurd. I don't care what Ionesco was trying to say with this play, although I think there are definitely some ideas about conformity and independence in there somewhere. It doesn't matter--this is one of those experiences where I feel like trying to pin labels on it and decipher all its possible meanings only reduces it. I just enjoyed the absurdity of it.
As far as the other plays, I have to say that I didn't care for them at all. Both The Leader and The Future is in Eggs seemed sophomoric and juvenile and ridiculous. I disliked them intensely. But, since the reason for buying the book would be mainly for Rhinoceros anyway, I think it's safe to give four stars for the entirety, as that's what I'd rate the top billing.
As far as the other plays, I have to say that I didn't care for them at all. Both The Leader and The Future is in Eggs seemed sophomoric and juvenile and ridiculous. I disliked them intensely. But, since the reason for buying the book would be mainly for Rhinoceros anyway, I think it's safe to give four stars for the entirety, as that's what I'd rate the top billing.
July 11, 2017
I'm on the horns of a dilemma about Rhinoceros (buh, dum, ch!). In trying to teach a unit about existentialism to my high school seniors, this was one of the books I had the option of teaching. I'd honestly never heard of this play or this author before. But then again, I don't often delve into the Theatre of the Absurd. While the idea of this play was intriguing at first, in reading it I realized two things. One, no way in hell would I attempt to teach this play to seniors. The amount of work it would take for the context alone would be staggering, and they would give up on it before they even started. And two, I do not really like Theatre of the Absurd. It's too, well, absurd.
I really liked the concept of Nazism and rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?). It was such an interesting parallel to see how collective consciousness can completely take over and become a new normal. I really want to SEE this play though. Through so much of what I was reading, I kept wanting the visuals that would accompany actually seeing the play. I'm also just curious about costuming and staging.
While it was a valuable read, it wasn't all that enjoyable. I appreciate the read, but I won't be reading it again.
I really liked the concept of Nazism and rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?). It was such an interesting parallel to see how collective consciousness can completely take over and become a new normal. I really want to SEE this play though. Through so much of what I was reading, I kept wanting the visuals that would accompany actually seeing the play. I'm also just curious about costuming and staging.
While it was a valuable read, it wasn't all that enjoyable. I appreciate the read, but I won't be reading it again.
March 17, 2023
I guess when Adam is left alone in the world with no Eve, the fat lady is singing.
Read
July 11, 2021Rhinoceros: 5 stars
I will continue to update this as I read more plays from this collection.
I will continue to update this as I read more plays from this collection.
April 25, 2019
At first this play seemed ridiculous and I could not get into it. However, I started to catch the symbolism. Then, it got a lot better. Realizing this play wasn't really about rhinoceroses escaping from the zoo but about people metamorphosizing made all the difference-- true personification.
September 6, 2010
I like to pretend that absurdist theater is pretty uncommon, but it probably isn't. Martin Esslin came up with the concept in his The Theatre of the Absurd, a book that has somehow come into our lives and home in the last few months. I've flipped through it a few times and have been interested, but am not prepared to read what Esslin has to say until I read some of the plays he references in his text. I've had a copy of Ionesco's Rhinoceros on my own shelf for years so it seemed fitting to start my absurdist theater/fiction quest with it.
I initially thought that the rhinoceros of the title would be some metaphor, like when folks say, "There's an elephant in the room" when talking about some big issue no one wants to confront. But no. The play actually features a rhinoceros. There's just one in the beginning but more do appear. Hence the absurdity of this play. The rhinoceri do pose as a metaphor, so I was right about that. But I was thrown by the actual existence of the pachyderm that I found myself giggling and shaking my head and thinking just how Lynchian the whole thing was. And then I started over.
My edition had two other plays as well, little one-act bits: The Leader and The Future is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World. I didn't enjoy either one nearly as much as the title play but could also see their inclusion in absurdist theater.
It is now a life goal of mine to find a stage production of Rhinoceros.
I initially thought that the rhinoceros of the title would be some metaphor, like when folks say, "There's an elephant in the room" when talking about some big issue no one wants to confront. But no. The play actually features a rhinoceros. There's just one in the beginning but more do appear. Hence the absurdity of this play. The rhinoceri do pose as a metaphor, so I was right about that. But I was thrown by the actual existence of the pachyderm that I found myself giggling and shaking my head and thinking just how Lynchian the whole thing was. And then I started over.
My edition had two other plays as well, little one-act bits: The Leader and The Future is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World. I didn't enjoy either one nearly as much as the title play but could also see their inclusion in absurdist theater.
It is now a life goal of mine to find a stage production of Rhinoceros.
September 11, 2012
I am a HUGE fan of "Theater of the Absurd". Eugene Ionesco is one of my favorite writers of this genre of theater and literature. I read his works and the work of others like him in a college course I took at Berklee College of Music (too many moons ago). "Rhinoceros" is a fine example of Theater of the Absurd. And like ALL works of this genre, it has a lot of deeper ideas to present to the theater-goer (and reader of the book). Although read 30+ years ago, this one book has influenced how I see the world at times. As a species, we all seem to like to run in packs, much like Rhinos do, even if it is NOT to our better interest or to the better interests of society. I take a look at the politics of our country today and I see disturbing parallels, especially from the more "Right-wing" political spectrum. Read the book and judge for yourself. You may not end up agreeing with me and that's OK! It's still a good read.
But I do LOVE "Theater of the Absurd". This type of theater has also influenced my sense of humor. It's dark. It is deep. And it doesn't necessarily shine a good light towards human behavior. But that's OK! Sometimes we need such humor to see the weakness within ourselves, do a little soul-searching, change and grow. Or, not grow! People generally don't, as many plays of this genre point out. (But I am an optimist, which is different from this genre of humor.)
But I do LOVE "Theater of the Absurd". This type of theater has also influenced my sense of humor. It's dark. It is deep. And it doesn't necessarily shine a good light towards human behavior. But that's OK! Sometimes we need such humor to see the weakness within ourselves, do a little soul-searching, change and grow. Or, not grow! People generally don't, as many plays of this genre point out. (But I am an optimist, which is different from this genre of humor.)
October 8, 2014
I only read Rhinoceros, it was pretty good, and really funny. But it does have quite a bit of philosophy, odd logic, and a little latin. My favorite character was the logician.
This is part of the book, but it doesn't really spoil anything:
My favorite part was when the logician said (This is not an exact quote) "Cats have four legs, your dog has four legs, therefore, your dog is a cat." I love this because the logician is not very good at what he does, which make the book really funny.
But all in all, it was and really good and I do plan to read the other two shorter plays.
This is part of the book, but it doesn't really spoil anything:
My favorite part was when the logician said (This is not an exact quote) "Cats have four legs, your dog has four legs, therefore, your dog is a cat." I love this because the logician is not very good at what he does, which make the book really funny.
But all in all, it was and really good and I do plan to read the other two shorter plays.
July 24, 2017
I really enjoyed reading all three of these plays, but would love to see any of them, most especially "Rhinoceros," on stage. For these plays, I think actually seeing their stories unfold live would be more enjoyable than just reading the texts.
May 7, 2020
Rhinoceros may have been written as a criticism of fascism and nazism, but its critique of conformist culture can be applied to all the “viral” ideals that consume every generation (tik tok dances…). The fears, the tropes, the public shaming and cancel culture of the early 21st century are absurdly scrutinized by Ionesco’s character’s inane bickering over Rhinoceritis. This play holds up a mirror, and it’s brutal.
The Future is in Eggs is a short and full of stage direction, but I’ve never laughed so hard while reading a play. Ionesco’s humor is biting and, again, a mirror to our conception of civilization.
The Future is in Eggs is a short and full of stage direction, but I’ve never laughed so hard while reading a play. Ionesco’s humor is biting and, again, a mirror to our conception of civilization.
June 22, 2021
What a fun little book! This was my first dip into absurdist playwriting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One complaint was them having “The Future is in Eggs” without its prequel? Not sure who thought that was a good idea. I’ll have to look up the preceding one
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February 5, 2025This is my 3rd time around. I love Ionesco and Rhinoceros is such a perfect play for our time. Congress is full of RINOS, and not the kind of Republicans and cons that MAGA like to call RINOS, but RINOS right out of Ionesco. I enjoyed reading it again, but I would love to see it performed which I never have. I have seen The Lesson and I think one other. Hopefully the play thrives in revival this year (though probably not where I live which prefers Sound of Music at best.) The Theatre of the Absurd is now real life.
October 25, 2023
Surreal satires on the abnegation of self in mass politics: social conformism, following leaders, identity groups.
January 28, 2012
I read this English translation of Ionesco's play mainly because I am currently reading Rhinoceros in the original French for a class, and I wanted to get the gist of the play before slogging through it line-by-line in French.
This remarkable example of absurdist theatre is quite an indictment of the way conformity and "group think" allow evil to flourish; it is an allegory for both the head-in-the-sand and the go-along-to-get-along attitudes that allowed the rise of Fascism and Nazism prior to World War II. It still provides an excellent lesson in the importance of individual critical thinking, resisting the mindless go-with-the-flow mentality so prevalent in society today.
This remarkable example of absurdist theatre is quite an indictment of the way conformity and "group think" allow evil to flourish; it is an allegory for both the head-in-the-sand and the go-along-to-get-along attitudes that allowed the rise of Fascism and Nazism prior to World War II. It still provides an excellent lesson in the importance of individual critical thinking, resisting the mindless go-with-the-flow mentality so prevalent in society today.
January 19, 2013
Only ended up reading the feature play of this collection, that is "Rhinoceros," but I actually enjoyed it the more I read it. A lot of the dialogue seemed unnecessary, and reading involved a lot of sifting through excruciatingly-detailed stage direction, but overall the social commentary of the play was quite compelling. I'm curious, however, if the metamorphosis that the civilians undergo isn't just a statement about fascism and herd-poisoning: to me, it seemed as if the whole human-to-rhinoceros business drew a subtle allegory for the process of coming out and of homosexuality in a time when it was still illegal and socially frowned upon.
November 28, 2013
Ionesco cleverly and articulately makes his point. His characters are comically absurd and telling.
February 5, 2015
very absurd very true. ARE THOSE RHINOCEROS?
November 23, 2020
Ionesco's ability to condense extremely dense and difficult subjects in a dramatic work while still being able to educate and entertain shows how masterfully he understood the psychology of social interaction, the necessity to rebel, and the tension that is caused between the two.
"Rhinoceros", the play, is an absolute joy; a perfect combination of witty satire that feels like affectionate teasing whilst also revealing itself as a sober examination on how words and thoughts can so easily be manipulated without the aching despair normally associated with material like this. One of my favourite exchanges come from Act I where people repeat each other's words or phrases, without clearly understanding those words or phrases, while at the same time repeatedly use words and ideas that are not of their own: they use them simply to argue a point, to "win" an argument, maintain their tribal identity at all cost -- becoming, yes, closed-minded the more they appear to be open-minded.
At the same time however, Ionesco makes a pointed comment that words in which his characters uses often defy the definition of whatever word is chosen and the meaning of which the speaker implies continuously gets bastardised or re-appropriated to a point that whatever meaning the word held originally has becomes meaningless through this artifice because the speaker themselves lack meaning: it should be no wonder then those who are unable to think for themselves get swept up in herd mentality.
And yet, the lone man whom remains at the end of the play is not a hero, for he does not carry any meaning either -- how can he if he is the only one left? Thus: he is no more or less absurd than the raging rhinoceroses galloping around his city.
10/10
"The Leader", shares the same ludicrousness of "Rhinoceros" but lacks substance. Rather than have his characters use words and define/redefine their meaning to suit the purposes of winning an argument, the characters in "The Leader" simply repeat the same phrases over and over again, mixing up the combination of phrases and themselves. It almost feels unnecessarily long since one gets the point fairly early on though I understand the point is that the disturbing cycle of propaganda is about repeating something ad nauseum until one no longer hears it anymore and just performs like an automaton.
7/10
"The Future is In Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World" is not without interest, it has a very interesting premise that meaning in movements themselves are not as important as populating the masses with "all sorts", in general. Probably this is the best example of a play needing to be realised live to measure the full weight of its impact and humour; on paper, it became slightly a bore once flurry of "eggs" started to appear.
4/10
Overall, a good selection mainly because "Rhinoceros" does everything right whereas "The Leader" and "The Future is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World" show the reader how Ionesco used the practice from these plays in order to create the magnificent "Rhinoceros".
"Rhinoceros", the play, is an absolute joy; a perfect combination of witty satire that feels like affectionate teasing whilst also revealing itself as a sober examination on how words and thoughts can so easily be manipulated without the aching despair normally associated with material like this. One of my favourite exchanges come from Act I where people repeat each other's words or phrases, without clearly understanding those words or phrases, while at the same time repeatedly use words and ideas that are not of their own: they use them simply to argue a point, to "win" an argument, maintain their tribal identity at all cost -- becoming, yes, closed-minded the more they appear to be open-minded.
At the same time however, Ionesco makes a pointed comment that words in which his characters uses often defy the definition of whatever word is chosen and the meaning of which the speaker implies continuously gets bastardised or re-appropriated to a point that whatever meaning the word held originally has becomes meaningless through this artifice because the speaker themselves lack meaning: it should be no wonder then those who are unable to think for themselves get swept up in herd mentality.
And yet, the lone man whom remains at the end of the play is not a hero, for he does not carry any meaning either -- how can he if he is the only one left? Thus: he is no more or less absurd than the raging rhinoceroses galloping around his city.
10/10
"The Leader", shares the same ludicrousness of "Rhinoceros" but lacks substance. Rather than have his characters use words and define/redefine their meaning to suit the purposes of winning an argument, the characters in "The Leader" simply repeat the same phrases over and over again, mixing up the combination of phrases and themselves. It almost feels unnecessarily long since one gets the point fairly early on though I understand the point is that the disturbing cycle of propaganda is about repeating something ad nauseum until one no longer hears it anymore and just performs like an automaton.
7/10
"The Future is In Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World" is not without interest, it has a very interesting premise that meaning in movements themselves are not as important as populating the masses with "all sorts", in general. Probably this is the best example of a play needing to be realised live to measure the full weight of its impact and humour; on paper, it became slightly a bore once flurry of "eggs" started to appear.
4/10
Overall, a good selection mainly because "Rhinoceros" does everything right whereas "The Leader" and "The Future is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World" show the reader how Ionesco used the practice from these plays in order to create the magnificent "Rhinoceros".
December 11, 2023
Ionesco was sold to me as a modern Molière, and I kind of see it.
I read somewhere that Rhinoceros was an allegory for totalitarianism, and I think that’s a pretty neat box to put it in. I can’t ever see it being performed because the tech was just so ambitious!
The Leader was an interesting little bite of drama that I think would’ve made more sense onstage. Fun nevertheless!
The Future Is in Eggs said it was supposed to be a sequel, so I didn’t read it.
On the whole, a wacky wild ride with enough depth for a raving English teacher to subject his students to it. I know the stage direction is essential to the play, but it was just so very tiresome to read through.
I read somewhere that Rhinoceros was an allegory for totalitarianism, and I think that’s a pretty neat box to put it in. I can’t ever see it being performed because the tech was just so ambitious!
The Leader was an interesting little bite of drama that I think would’ve made more sense onstage. Fun nevertheless!
The Future Is in Eggs said it was supposed to be a sequel, so I didn’t read it.
On the whole, a wacky wild ride with enough depth for a raving English teacher to subject his students to it. I know the stage direction is essential to the play, but it was just so very tiresome to read through.
January 12, 2024
Tre fjärdedelar av den här bestod av ”Rhinoceros” så fokus ligger på denna.
Braaa. Dialogerna är fyndigt konstruerade där karaktärerna upprepar vad den andre säger, om än inte alltid korrekt återgivet.. Logikern var ett kul inslag där alla försök till att förstå situationen som utspelar sig antingen mynnar ut i meningslöshet eller är helt fel sätt att angripa problemet på från första början.
Noshörningar överallt är roligt.
Har inte supermycket erfarenhet med att läsa teater (Beckett är fortfarande GOAT) så kan inte jämföra med annat. Med det sagt hade jag mer än gärna velat se det här på en scen.
4/5
Braaa. Dialogerna är fyndigt konstruerade där karaktärerna upprepar vad den andre säger, om än inte alltid korrekt återgivet.. Logikern var ett kul inslag där alla försök till att förstå situationen som utspelar sig antingen mynnar ut i meningslöshet eller är helt fel sätt att angripa problemet på från första början.
Noshörningar överallt är roligt.
Har inte supermycket erfarenhet med att läsa teater (Beckett är fortfarande GOAT) så kan inte jämföra med annat. Med det sagt hade jag mer än gärna velat se det här på en scen.
4/5
October 27, 2023
for class
March 28, 2024
Is the rhinoceros some sort of metaphor or no
May 5, 2019
I thought the scene where one character was literally turning into a rhino in front of the other character was so fun!
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