An adaptation of a post-war avant garde drama, ‘Rhinoceros’, directed by Nasir Malekijou will go on stage in Tehran from February 14.
‘Rhinoceros’ (1959), is a three-act play by Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco (1909- 1994), in which, the inhabitants of a small, provincial French town turn into rhinoceroses; ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure who is initially criticized in the play for his drinking, tardiness, and slovenly lifestyle and then, later, for his increasing paranoia and obsession with rhinoceroses.
The play is often read as a response and criticism to the sudden upsurge of communism, fascism and Nazism during the events preceding World War II, and explores the themes of conformity, culture, mass movements, mob mentality, philosophy and morality, Mehr News Agency reported.
Malekijou the director says: “We have looked differently at the narration, reproducing the story, which is not about France in the year 1959 (when the original play was written). However, it portrays Iran over the next 50 years.”
In Iran, different adaptations of the play have been staged by theater directors including the late Hamid Samandarian, Farhad Ayish, and Vahid Rahbani, each of whom cast a unique look at the story and portrayed the metamorphosed contemporary human being.
Eshraq Ashtarian, Mahnaz Oftadeh Nia, Solmaz Amin Moqaddam, Masoumeh Iranshahi, Parsa Beheshti, Raad Pourjabbar, Sara Poursorkh, Ali Khosrojerdi, Bahar Razizadeh and Moein Zarabi are among the cast.
It will run through March 18 at Iranshahr Theater Hall, located at Iranian Artists’ Forum, Honar Garden, North Mousavi St., Taleqani Avenue.
