Rhinoceros and Other Plays

Eugène Ionesco

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780802190758
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Drama
• Index: Literature

"With outrageous comedy" this classic of Absurdist drama "attacks the most serious subjects: blind conformity and totalitarianism, despair and death" ( The New York Times ). In Rhinoceros, as in his other plays, Eugene Ionesco startles audiences with a world that invariably erupts in explosive laughter and nightmare anxiety. A rhinoceros suddenly appears in a small town, tramping through its peaceful streets. Soon there are two, then three, until the "movement" is universal. This is not an invasion of wild animals, but a transformation of average citizens into beasts, as they learn to move with the times. As the curtain comes down, only one desperate man remains. 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 in a world where all others have succumbed to the "beauty" of brute force and mindlessness.

RHINOCEROS

Main Cast List for the first Paris Production

BERENGER	Jean-Louis Barrault
JEAN	William Sabatier
DAISY	Simone Valère
DUDARD	Gabriel Cattand
THE LOGICIAN	Jean Parédès
THE WAITRESS	Jane Martel
THE HOUSEWIFE	Marie-Hélène Dasté
THE OLD GENTLEMAN	Robert Lombard
MRS. BOEUF	Simone Paris
MR. PAPILLON	Michel Bertay

Main Cast List for the first London Production

BERENGER	Laurence Olivier
JEAN	Duncan Macrae
DAISY	Joan Plowright
DUDARD	Alan Webb
THE LOGICIAN	Geoffrey Dunn
THE WAITRESS	Monica Evans
THE HOUSEWIFE	Hazel Hughes
THE OLD GENTLEMAN	Michael Bates
MRS. BOEUF	Gladys Henson
MR. PAPILLON	Miles Malleson

RHINOCEROS

A Play in Three Acts and Four Scenes.

First produced in Paris by Jean-Louis Barrault at the Odéon, the 25th January, 1960.

First produced in London by Orson Welles at the Royal Court Theatre, the 28th April, 1960.

CHARACTERS

	Scene
JEAN	1st		3rd
BERENGER	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
THE WAITRESS	1st
THE GROCER	1st
THE GROCER’S WIFE	1st
THE OLD GENTLEMAN	1st
THE LOGICIAN	1st
THE HOUSEWIFE	1st
THE CAFÉ PROPRIETOR	1st
DAISY	1st	2nd		4th
MR. PAPILLON		2nd
DUDARD		2nd		4th
BOTARD		2nd
MRS. BOEUF		2nd
A FIREMAN		2nd
THE LITTLE OLD MAN			3rd
THE LITTLE OLD MAN’S WIFE			3rd
And a lot of Rhinoceros heads

ACT ONE

The scene is a square in a small provincial town. Up-stage a house composed of a ground floor and one storey. The ground floor is the window of a grocer’s shop. The entrance is up two or three steps through a glass-patted door. The word EPICERIE is written in bold letters above the shop window. The two windows on the first floor are the living quarters of the grocer and his wife. The shop is up-stage, but slightly to the left, not far from the wings. In the distance a church steeple is visible above the grocer's house. Between the shop and the left of the stage there is a little street in perspective. To the right, slightly at an angle, is the front of a café. Above the café, one floor with a window; in front, the café terrace; several chairs and tables reach almost to centre stage. A dusty tree stands near the terrace chairs. Blue sky; harsh light; very white walls. The time is almost mid-day on a Sunday in summertime. JEAN and BERENGER will sit at one of the terrace tables.

[The sound of church bells is heard, which stop a few moments before the curtain rises. When the curtain rises, a woman carrying a basket of provisions under one arm and a cat under the other crosses the stage in silence from right to left. As she does so, the GROCER’S WIFE opens her shop door and watches her pass.]

GROCER’S WIFE: Oh that woman gets on my nerves! [To her husband who is in the shop:] Too stuck-up to buy from us nowadays. [The GROCER’S WIFE leaves; the stage is empty for a few moments.]

[JEAN enters right, at the same time as BERENGER enters left. JEAN is very fastidiously dressed: brown suit, red tie, stiff collar, brown hat. He has a reddish face. His shoes are yellow and well-polished. BERENGER is unshaven and hatless, with unkempt hair and creased clothes; everything about him indicates negligence. He seems weary, half-asleep; from time t...