Beit Lessin Theater: "Rhinoceroses"

When a mysterious herd of rhinoceroses attacks a peaceful town, the town’s residents initially try to ignore the threat, but their anxiety about their fate intensifies and causes them to willingly turn into rhinoceroses. Is it possible to remain human in a time of extreme threat? And at what cost? Ionesco’s renowned play in an updated and more relevant-than-ever version, directed by Yair Sherman | Only 50 performances!

Rhinoceros (in French: Rhinocéros) is an absurdist play by the Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco, dealing with conformity. The play gave rise to the Hebrew term “rhinocerization”: when a mysterious herd of rhinoceroses attacks a peaceful town, its startled residents initially try to ignore the threat, but their anxiety about their fate intensifies and causes them to willingly turn into rhinoceroses. The play’s protagonist does everything in his power to protect his close friends and beloved from joining the herd of rhinoceroses, but is it possible to remain human in a time of extreme threat? And at what cost?

Ionesco’s renowned parable takes on a relevant and breathtaking significance in light of today’s reality. Yair Sherman’s interpretation, by the resident director of the Baruch Ivcher Beit Lessin Theatre (Hamlet, Hedda Gabler, and Antigone), joins those of the great directors for whom this play has constituted an artistic challenge. The play’s structure is circular—at first there is one rhinoceros, and ultimately there is one person—and it also differs from conventional plays in that it contains no complication and resolution, but only complication: people turn into rhinoceroses. This represents the persistence of conformity.

By Eugène Ionesco | Hebrew adaptation: Eli Biz’awi | Director: Yair Sherman | Assistant director: Nimrod Etsion | Set and costume design: Polina Admo | Music: Didi Erez | Lighting: Felix Ross | Movement: Uri Shafir | Sound: Niral Sharon | Lighting design: Baruch Shpilgman | Featuring Tom Hagi, Beni Eldar, Lihi Kornowski, Tal Danino, Muli Shulman, Zohar Meidan, Avraham Selketer, Eran Sharel, Ora Meirson, and Yaniv Shavit

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