2000 · Rhinocéros · Ionesco · Vigner (EN)

On 11 November 2000 Éric Vigner opened the season of the CDDB-Théâtre de Lorient with a performance of RHINOCEROS by IONESCO with JEAN-DAMIEN BARBIN, NATHALIE LACROIX, FRANCIS LEPLAY, JEAN-FRANÇOIS PERRIER, THOMAS ROUX, JEAN-BAPTISTE SASTRE and JUTTA JOHANNA WEISS.  IONESCO’s RHINOCÉROS had been absent from the stage for no less than forty years.

"We all know that criticism seems impossible, that the criteria vary, that the criteria are not congruent with the work, that, when they speak of a literary work, critics often do so from the point of view of psychology or sociology, or history, or the history of literature and so on. In other words, they invariably stand beside the work in question, in the context, as it were; the text does not touch them although it is the text that matters the most ; it is the text they ought to regard, the uniqueness of the text as a living body, as a creation turned creature, rather than the context, which is general, external, impersonal. What matters - what matters to me - is without resemblance to anything else, neither to sociology nor to history, what matters to me is the work’s irreducibility to history or society, its own specific story, not another one. All history of art is the history of its expression. Every and any new expression means an event, something arrives, something new. What lingers in my mind, then, is that expression is substance and form at the same time. Not the story is what matters, but how it is written, how any written story reveals a deeper meaning. To appreciate how a story is told rather than what it tells, this is the hallmark of a literary vocation."  [1]

BERENGER
Life is an abnormal business.
JEAN
On the contrary. Nothing could be more natural, and the proof is that people go on living.
BERENGER
There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer. [2]

"And now, before entering upon the next chapter, I invite my readers to reflect some twenty minutes on the identity of opposites."
Eugène Ionesco

BERENGER
Where can I find the weapons ?
LE LOGICIEN
There are no limits to logic !
JEAN
Within yourself. Through your own will.
BERENGER
What weapons ?
LE LOGICIEN
I'm going to show you...
JEAN
Les armes de la patience, de la culture, les armes de l'intelligence. Devenez un esprit vif et brillant. Mettez-vous à la page.
BERENGER
Comment se mettre à la page ?  [2]

"I wish I could do it ! Ahh, Ahh, Brr ! No, That's not it ! Try again, louder ! Ahh, Ahh, Brr ! No, that's not it, it's too feeble, it's got nodrive behind it. I'm not trumpeting at all; I'm just howling. Ahh, Ahh, Brr. There's a big difference between howling and trumpeting. I should have gone with them while there was still time. Now it's too late ! Now I'm a monster, just a monster. now I'll never become a rhinoceros, never, never ! ... I'm the last man left, and I'm staying that way until the end. I'm not capitulating !" [3]

"Out go the stage sets of provincial France dating from the 1950s, the small market, the small office… An empty stage with a rhinoceros in its midst, disembowelled, the enormous nightmare of the only plausible human character in the play, Bérenger. Jean-Damien Barbin transforms his adventure into an exclusive confrontation with the Beast. By contrast, the other witnesses of its intrusion, who all change metaphorically into rhinoceroses, speak with the sentencious slowness of shadows in a dream. Bérenger dreams all the things that surround and engulf him."
CHRISTOPHE DESHOULIÈRES

DAISY
How's your head feel now ?
BERENGER
Much better, darling.
DAISY
Then we'll take off the bandage. It doesn't suit you at all.
BERENGER
Oh no, don't touch it.
DAISY
Nonsense, we'll take it off now.
BERENGER
I'm frightened there might be something underneath.
DAISY
Always frightened, aren't you, always imagining the worst ! There's nothing there, you see. Your forehead's as smooth as a baby's.
BERENGER
You're right; you're getting rid of my complexes. What should I do without you ?
DAISY
I'll never leave you alone again.
BERENGER
I won't have any more fears now I'm with you.
DAISY
I'll keep them all at bay.
BERENGER
We'll rea books together. [3]

BERENGER
I just can't get used to life. [2]

[1] EUGÈNE IONESCO, ENTRE LA VIE ET LE RÊVE, Conversations with CLAUDE BONNEFOY, 1996
[2] RHINOCÉROS by EUGÈNE IONESCO, JOHN CALDER 1960, Act I
[3] RHINOCÉROS by EUGÈNE IONESCO, JOHN CALDER 1960, Act III

 

© Photography : Alain Fonteray
Texts assembled by Jutta Johanna Weiss
Translation from the French by Herbert Kaiser
© CDDB-Théâtre de Lorient