Director Jesse Njus

Virginia Commonwealth University

February 2025

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Written by Eugène Ionesco, Rhinoceros is an absurdist anti-fascist work which utilized Rhinoceroses as a metaphor for fascism. This show is set in the 1930s, pre-World War II. Every character, save the leading man Berenger, transforms into a Rhinoceros before the play finishes. The text describes the Rhinoceroses as characteristically green, so the base costume for each character consists of green-toned dark trousers and a green-toned collared shirt. Berenger keeps red undertones throughout the show as an opposition to the green Rhinoceroses. As the characters transform into the creatures they shed their outer layers in front of the audience and dawn brutalist-inspired Rhinoceros heads made of a moldable plastic mesh. This allows the audience to visualize that the Rhinoceroses were underneath all along.