Eugène Ionesco
An absurdist play written in 1959, addressing the outrageousness of an average persons life on the planet and the societal urge to conform. Interesting, I need to look further into it again. It’s hard to read stuff like this in french.
In a french village, Béranger and Jean are meeting at a cafe when a rhinoceros is seen tromping around centre ville. The ensuing discussion between the patrons of the cafe regarding the rhinoceros (oh! ça alors…) and their attempt to calm a woman who’s cat was killed by a rhinoceros.
The debate rages as to whether there was one or two rhinoceros, whether they were unicorned or bicornu somehow overshadows the fact that there were pachyderms in a quaint french village, and Ionesco pokes plenty of fun at the middle class culture with his absurd dialogues and situations.
The next day Béranger heads into work, and his office begins the argument as to whether or not it was at all possible for there to have actually been rhinoceros, or if the event was just made up by overzealous journalists. More fun is poked, this time towards academics by Botard, a former teacher now working in a law publishing office. Botard refuses to believe any of what Béranger and Daisy (the secretary who was at the cafe the other day with Béranger) say, with the boss and the manager of the office mediating the debate in a professional and managerial way, until M. Boeuf is found to have turned himself into a Rhinoceros, and his wife shows up at the office lamenting. She ends up not being able to stay away from him, and gallops away on his back.
The offices stairway was destroyed by the rampaging M. Boeuf, and the work day is suspended. Béranger head over to his friend Jeans house, the two had an argument at the cafe on how many and what sorts of rhinoceros’ there were. Jean isn’t feeling well, and his actions and words become more and more belligerent until he himself turns into a rhinoceros. His attitude sharply contrasts with what he had to say to Béranger the other day, on how to be a good person in life.
Béranger is quite shaken, and in the next act is in his own house (which is described as “surprisingly similar to that of Jean,” poking more fun at the human condition these days) himself not feeling well. His colleague Dudard, the manager at his work, comes to talk about all the rhinoceros. Béranger is strongly against the idea of people turning into rhinoceros, it’s unnatural he says, and he continually goes over to the window to yell out at them. But Dudard comes at the angle “with reason,” coldly, taking both points of view. Béranger refuses to look at the issue logically, instead launching passionate tirades against the entire idea and needing to be calmed by Dudard.
Daisy, the secretary, comes over with a packed lunch, as the street outside becomes nothing but rhinoceros’ trampling. Béranger’s neighbors become rhinoceros, noisily running down and out into the street. Dudard himself, after mulling over the pros and cons for a time (and seeing that Daisy seems to like Béranger more then him), convinces Béranger and Daisy he can’t stay for lunch and runs out with the crowd.
Daisy decides that she loves Béranger, and they go on for a time until Daisy starts teetering on the same ledge everyone else has fallen off. Béranger gets angry, and Daisy herself leaves. Béranger teeters himself, but finally decides to defend the world from all the rhinoceros.
The absurdity of the play is odd, in french the word is probably drôle, but I can’t translate it right in context. Above I used the phrase “poke fun” a time or two, which is about where drôle comes when its changed to english. Ionesco has a sort of superior air in describing his characters and their actions showing the absurdity of the things they do. Capped off with the most of them turning into rhinoceros, Ionesco shows how he feels about culture (maybe specifically that of Nazi germany in his younger years living in Romania, but also more generally), how it really isn’t anything that special. he paints a great face on the Rat Race, turning the first the middle class, then the rest of the population into rhinoceros.
Béranger could use a character study, what makes him at all different from the rest? Why doesn’t he turn? He has problems in his life, and he knows it. He is passionate, he talks to Dudard about how he is uneducated (he didn’t go to university). He seems to take other peoples advice easily, being convinced by Jean in a few different ways that he could improve his life, and by Dudard to calm down often throughout their discourse. But he didn’t budge in his opinion of the rhinoceritis, except for a bit when he wished that he could have become a rhinoceros, but understands that he can’t.
