Rhinoceros Play Analysis

The Rhinoceros

By Eugene Ionesco

The play Rhinoceros follows a single day as experienced by a few different people as they are to a conversion of sorts. They were convinced to convert to leaving the human life and becoming a rhinoceros. In all aspects of themselves, they did become rhinoceroses. In mind, emotion, physicality, demeanor, and communication, the characters of the play became a rhinoceros. They actually left their human body and were going to turn into a rhinoceros . Sounds absurd, and that is basically the whole point. The play was interpreted as a reaction to the fascism post - World War II. Rhinoceroses arrive in France, and of course the people of the French town want nothing to do with them. But as the day goes on, the

people begin to see the true beings of the rhinoceros as they are brainwashed into “becoming a rhinoceros,” which is, of course, a far fetched concept. It is supposed to be a symbol of the events going on around the time Eugene Ionesco wrote this play.

As far as set goes, this play is somewhat intricate, but also quite simple. The opening of the play takes place in a square, or so the set appeared. There were two buildings set up, made rather cartoon-esque, both with an opening door and square hole in the wall with drapes to act as curtains. The audience might assume that the set was rather low budget, as the doors and surrounding walls appeared to be made of cardboard. The stage was set as if there was a dining area with a few classic cafe tables and chairs set up, similar to the way one would see a patio outside of a town bakery. The second scene occurred in an office, where the background, again, appeared to be made of cardboard. There were three doors that were equally spaced on the back wall, as well as two windows between them. In the acting space, there were three desks, two of which were smaller than the desk at center stage. On the desk that was placed upstage right, there was a typewriter. Behind the main desk at center stage was the other smaller desk with random assorted office supplies. The last scenes in the play take place in an apartment of one of the characters, Berenger. The walls were set up in a similar fashion to the office room, but the desks were replaced with a bed, nightstand, and a kitchen table. The furniture moves around to different positions between scenes, but it is still the same place. In a conclusion about the set, the amount of work put into it was high, but the budget the company was provided was very low.

The costumes of the characters were simple with few pieces to them, but they did the job well. The play takes place in a small French town, so one would think that they would have simple clothes and a simple life, and the costume designer did a wonderful job of portraying that fact. All the girls were wearing knee-length dresses with cap sleeves in all different prints, most of them floral. All the men wore either a suit or a collared shirt with suspenders. A few characters here and there had the occasional odd costume, but there was nothing special about it. For example, in the beginning of the play, a young girl skipped across the stage wearing a bright blue and yellow jumper, which seemed out of place when put into the scene with the other actors and costumes. Despite the simplicity of each costume, there was still a complex thought process behind each one.

The actors themselves took on their roles well.

Whether they were a drunk or a punctual control freak, each actor clearly put a lot of thought into their work. Each actor was fully committed to every action they made and they moved with a definite purpose. Despite the definite movements and the definite character choices made by the actors, there still appeared to be a sense of forced emotion in their words. For example, the man acting as the drunkard overplayed the alcoholic, hung over, and stereotypical wobbly walk. He made a few obvious mistakes, like flubbing up lines and other things to that effect, and it appeared to be because he was trying so hard to look and act drunk that he forgot to act. The woman playing Daisy was, in fact, one of the best. She had few mistakes and played her role the most realistically out of all the actors. The blocking of the play allowed for a few characters to upstage themselves and others, which made it hard to hear some words and conversations, but besides that, the technical aspects of it were good.

There were not really any sound effects that went along with this show. If there were, they were inserted by the director. The lighting played an interesting role in the show. Each scene took place further in the day so the lighting showed the audience that progression. The lighting of scene one was bright and sunny, but by the time the last scene rolled around, the lighting had reached a point of a glowing orange to signify a setting sun. I found this quite interesting and effective, as it was one of the only technical components that were put into this

show.

This show was a hilarious, yet insightful view on society post World War II, and is worth seeing. Considering all the factors that go into a good play and performance, this production was quite good. Provided that there were limited resources, limited spaces, and a small amount of problems, the play was great and the technical aspects of the play were good.