Eugène Ionesco. RHINOCEROS

  • Director

    Antanas OBCARSKAS

  • Duration

    3 h (two acts)

  • Stage

    New Stage

  • Premiere date

    8th March, 2023

  • N-16

About

Translated from French by Vincentas Klipčius

 

Rhinoceros are now in your town, too! Join the progress!

How fast they are. Strong. Monumental! Unquestioning. Logical. And you? You don't exist because you don't reason. Start reasoning and you will find yourself. This is more than an invitation. Become a rhinoceros! Just look at how beautifully they bellow! Singing and dancing!

They may have been a minority at first, but now they are definitely not. There are more and more of them. You'll find your own people there too. Your co-workers and neighbors. There’s the whole elite. Your CEO, your mayor, your key influencers. It's easy to criticize from the outside, but the truth is only seen from the inside, once you've joined. You see what's happening – reality changes before your eyes. After many crises, the world has changed beyond recognition. Keep up with the times.

So, what will your choice be? Will you continue to sit in the café? To have another small one? Or will you join? But will you succeed? Or will you be the last human standing in your town?

 

***

On a quiet Sunday afternoon, people from all walks of life gather in a café in the square of a typical French provincial town. They talk about their lives and politics. These discussions help us to understand the problems not only in France but in Europe as a whole. In the space of the café, the characters not only come together but also move away from each other. Suddenly, many rhinoceros appear in the town, disrupting normal life and turning a hallucination into a provocation.

"Rhinoceros" is one of the best-known plays by the Romanian-born French playwright Eugène Ionesco and one of the most popular comedies of the 20th century. Despite the many characteristics of the theatre of the absurd, as well as of the playwright's oeuvre, "Rhinoceros" is considered to be one of Ionesco's most unusual works. The play depicts the gradual transformation of humankind into rhinoceros, thus metaphorically conveying the collapse of the personality, the desire to be like everyone else, and to merge into the masses. The playwright focuses on the individual and his or her place in society, as well as on the longing for meaning that is deeply rooted in humans.

"I see Ionesco's play as a study of the contemporary world. Its four scenes hold a reflection of the situation in today's world: miscommunication, the possession of a job you don't like plus the growing fear of losing it, the different perceptions of reality, the reflections on a community that is divided by populist ideas and increasingly radicalized – along with the attempts to understand what a human being is and what humanity is. Isn't the human a relic?" –  reflects the production director Antanas Obcarskas. He says that in staging the drama piece, he intends to reveal not only the most topical but also the most comical nuances of "Rhinoceros".

 

 

 

Dates

  • April 16 (Tue), 19:00 New Stage
  • April 17 (Wed), 19:00 Buy a ticket New Stage

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Creators

  • Director — Antanas OBCARSKAS
  • Set designer — Lauryna LIEPAITĖ
  • Playwright — Valentinas KLIMAŠAUSKAS
  • Costume designer — Juozas VALENTA
  • Composer — Agnė MATULEVIČIŪTĖ
  • Video Designers — Adomas GUSTAINIS, Ričard ŽIGIS
  • Light Designer — Dainius URBONIS
  • Choreographer — Ieva NAVICKAITĖ
  • Authors of the cat — Pakui Hardware (Neringa Černiauskaitė, Ugnius Gelguda)
  • Author of the masks — Donatas JANKAUSKAS DUONIS
  • Director's Assistant — Deivydas VALENTA
  • Producer — Kamilė ŽIČKYTĖ
  • Music played by — String quartet "Chordos", Agnė Matulevičiūtė, Matas Samulionis, Dominykas Snarskis, Danielius Skeivelas, Gediminas Stepanavičius

Cast

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