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1936: the same year that Eugene and Rodica were married and his mother died, another
writer, Denis de Rougemont, was in Nuremberg. As his inspiration for the short story,
"Rhinoceros," Ionesco credits the compelling journal entries of Denis de Rougemont,
which describe the "delirium which electrified him" as he was lured into a Nazi rally
attended by Hitler. His conclusion: "I am alone and they are all together."
As a stepping off point for the character of Berenger and for the action of the
short story, (published in 1957 and then adapted into the three-act play), these
were potent images of a phenomenon especially resonant for Ionesco, who had almost
20 years earlier endured the period of the fascist Iron Guard and broken with his
father due to irreconcilable political differences.
Ionesco describes his characters not as "stereotypes" but as "archetypes," that
function on a mythic plane but with enough naturalistic detail to ground them in
the particular and thereby maintain their immediacy.
The play was first delivered via BBC radio in August 1959, first staged in Dusseldorf
in October of the same year (at the Schauspielhaus, directed by Karl-Heinz Stroux with
Karl-Maria Schley as Berenger), premiered first in Paris in 1960 and then at the Royal
Court in London (directed by Orson Welles with Laurence Olivier). A then unknown
London playwright recalls the stampede for tickets while he awaited the verdict on
his own new play, The Caretaker. Harold Pinter's commercial success was secured
just after Ionesco's, and though rarely discussed in the same context, their
oeuvres have much in common.
To an even greater extent than The Lesson, Rhinoceros was seen by many critics
as a departure from what had come before. After the fallout of "the London
Controversy" in the pages of its competitor, The London Times expressed relief
(rather than condescension) by heading its review: "Ionesco Play All Easily
Comprehensible." Not a few found it unabashedly didactic and schematic in its
treatment of a single sociopolitical idea. Still others identified Berenger as
the existentialist everyman and claimed him as an original, relevant hero. German
reaction is reported to have been all embracing, while that of the Paris critics
was, characteristically, divergent.
The first French production was performed at the Odeon, under the direction of
Jean-Louis Barrault, who played Berenger. Jacques Noel was again Ionesco's set
designer, and he produced a realistic set of backdrops and flats for the town
square of the opening act, in keeping with its operetta-like beginning. Each act
contained scenery incorporating a naming device (not quite Brechtian signage):
"Epicerie," "Chef de service," "Concierge," etc.
Everywhere it opened, Rhinoceros broadened Ionesco's audience, but it was the
1961 Broadway production that caused him unprecedented celebrity. With
Eli Wallach as Berenger and Zero Mostel as Jean (for which Mostel
received his first Tony), it was directed by Joseph Anthony and produced
by Leo Kerz. Considering the great number of languages into which the play
has been translated, and ongoing international interest in producing it,
it is perhaps surprising to find that to date the country in which it has
received the most number of productions (if not performances) is the US
(access to web reporting may be a factor in this statistic).
It was not until 1964 that the play was performed in Bucharest, at the Teatrul de
Comedie, under the direction of Lucian Giurchescu. This was the first production
of any Ionesco work in Romania, as it had been banned.
Multiple television and at least two film adaptations have also been made of
Ionesco's most well-known full-length play. In October, the Anthology Film
Archives will present Rhinoceros (1964), an animated short by Jan Lenica and
Rhinoceros (1974), directed by Tom O'Horgan, of Hair fame.
"Anyway, Berenger is, I hope, above all a character. And if he is time-resistant,
it will be because he has proved himself as a character; he should, if he
has any real worth, survive even after his "message" has become outdated.
Poetically, it is not his thought but his passion and his imaginative life
that will matter, for his message could quite as well be delivered now by a
journalist, a philosopher or a moralist, etc....The interest we may take
today in a particular attitude, in spite of its human importance, takes
second place to the permanent importance of art."
--Karen Lee Ott, Festival Dramaturg
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