Theatre Arts

Rhinoceros

 

Written by Eugène Ionesco

Directed by Bruce McLeod

 

A play by playwright Eugène Ionesco, written in 1959. The play was included in Martin Esslin's study of post-war avant-garde drama The Theatre of the Absurd, although scholars have also rejected this label as too interpretatively narrow.[citation needed] Over the course of three acts, the inhabitants of a small, provincial French town turn into rhinoceroses; ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure who is initially criticized in the play for his drinking, tardiness, and slovenly lifestyle and then, later, for his increasing paranoia and obsession with the rhinoceroses. The play is often read as a response and criticism to the sudden upsurge of Fascism and Nazism during the events preceding World War II, and explores the themes of conformity, culture, fascism, responsibility, logic, mass movements, mob mentality, philosophy and morality.

Performances May 23rd - June 8th in the Lohman Theatre on the campus of Foothill College.

Thursday performances May 29th and June 5th at 7:30 pm

Friday performances May 23rd, 30th and June 6th at 8:00 pm

Saturday performances May 24th, 31st and June 7th at 8:00 pm

Sunday performances June 1st and 8th at 2pm

Purchase tickets here!