About the work
Rhinoceros (French "Rhinocéros") is a play in three acts by Eugène Ionesco, premiered in 1959. As one of the major works of the theatre of the absurd, it is a powerful allegory of the rise of totalitarian ideologies and the susceptibility of the masses to conformism and fanaticism.
Plot
In a small town the unheard-of occurs: one after another, the inhabitants transform into rhinoceroses. What begins as a strange isolated phenomenon becomes an epidemic—more and more people give up their individuality and join the bellowing, thick-skinned herd, partly from conviction, partly from fear of being different. Only the unremarkable, hard-drinking Bérenger resists and refuses to the last to surrender to the "rhinocerisation." In the end he stands as the only human amid a world of rhinoceroses—alone but unyielding.
Cultural significance
Rhinoceros is Ionesco's most famous and accessible parable, inspired by his experiences with the rise of fascism and the Iron Guard in Romania. "Rhinocerisation" became a byword for the contagious power of totalitarian mass movements. The play combines grotesque humour with serious political warning and is among the most frequently performed dramas of the twentieth century.