Blue Raincoat Theatre Company

Rhinoceros

by Eugene Ionesco

Blue Raincoat continue with their acclaimed catalogue of travels through the realms of the absurd after their series of new adaptations of the works of Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman and At Swim-Two-Birds, and two other works by Ionesco: The Chairs and The Bald Soprano.

Rhinoceros ranks clearly among Ionesco’s seminal works. It concerns the citizens of a small town who – bar one tardy and disaffected drop-out - turn into a herd of rampaging rhinoceroses. Can Berenger cling to the scraps of his humanity when the town Logician, the Grocer, the Humanist, the ubiquitous Old Lady and even his closest friend Jean, begin sprouting horns and turning a distasteful shade of grey?

A searing and bleakly funny study on the human nature, Rhinoceros is amongst the most striking and enduring commentaries on social frailty and group hysteria from the 20th century.

'Excellent performances, outstanding example of absurdist theatre' The Irish Times

'Blue Raincoat are.too strange for Galway' Tommy Tiernan