Friday, January 6, 2012

O'Horgan's RHINOCEROS by Ionesco

If both Becket's waiters were late, they would be Producers' Gene Wilder a little hung over and a light-as-a-feather Zero Mostel in this version of Ionesco's parody of Nazism. Gene drops the alarm clock in the toilet. "I just can't get used to life." Hide-bound Zero finds the sullying of a tie worse than being called a mule. "I never dream." Socrates is proven syllologically a cat.

Rhino had a menacing musk in the artwarehouse presentation I once saw. Ionesco's Lesson also had an air of Pinter at Theatre de la Huchette where the bald soprano has failed to appear since it opened in the 60s. This film, with its peekaboo CPAs as interchangeable as musical office chairs, plays it much more broadly.

Gene can no longer take his humanity for granted. "What's color got to do with it?" Zero transforms, screaming rubbish. "The human individual is all washed up." A newscaster transforms in the middle of the weather report. On TV are: boxing, a Western, war. My favorite detail is the Nixon photo on the wall. Zero is a little hoarse. One bump or two?






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