Rhinoceros

In a small French village, people are turning into rhinoceroses. This is the absurd crisis unfolding in Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 play, Rhinoceros. It begins with a small bump on the forehead. Then the skin takes on shades of green and grows tougher. Hoarseness in the voice becomes inarticulate trumpeting; the bump becomes a horn; the transformation is complete. While everyone around him morphs into beasts and joins the herd, Bérenger remains apart, impervious to the epidemic. His own transformation from a man who finds his life meaningless to one who refuses thoughtless conformity brings into focus the themes of personal responsibility, individuality, and morality.