Sudarsna Mukund, Ernest Briggs, Shruti Priti Ramesh, and Tyler Stamm Photo by Bruce Silcox

Ionesco wrote the play in response to similar circumstances he observed, first in the period between the two World Wars, when large numbers of his countrymen turned to antisemitism, Nazi ideology, and membership in the Iron Guard, a virulent paramilitary organization. With the outbreak of World War II, Ionesco left Romania for France where, after the war, he was similarly dismayed by the far left being seduced into the French Communist Party. Rhinoceros is his commentary on both of those phenomena, as well as satire on the behavior of the French under Nazi occupation. Ionesco had many grievances against the human race, which he spectacularly gives voice to in Rhinoceros.

Pangea World Theater has unpacked Ionesco's jewel of a play, mounting a production at the Southern Theater that plainly lays out the way the playwright's satiric portrayal of seemingly rational human beings who leapt into rabidly extreme political camps during the cauldron of the interwar years and the cold war, applies in 2025. In fact, this phenomena has never left us, being kept alive in one or another part of the globe, only now it seems to have taken hold in what had been considered the bulwark of resistance against such movements, the United States.

Being one of the mid-20th century playwrights categorized as absurdist (others in that camp include Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Luigi Pirandello, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and, in his early works, Harold Pinter) Ionesco did not write a naturalistic drama about his concerns. Instead of leaping from cozy centrism into political extremism, his characters are somehow captured by forces of change and transformed into rhinoceroses.

It begins with the central character, an everyman named Berenger, meeting his fastidious friend Jean at a cafe. Jean berates Berenger for his slovenly appearance, his excessive drinking, and chronic tardiness, and they fall into an argument. As proof of his point, Jean points out Berenger's attempt to hide when the object of his affection, a co-worker named Daisy, enters the cafe, lest she see Berenger in his present disheveled state.

At another table, a logician explains the logic of the syllogism, leading his audience to conclusions that, based on the rules laid out, would have to be true, though they are patently false. When one of the logician's rapt companions exclaims, "Logic is a very beautiful thing!," the logician replies, "Yes, as long as it is not abused." Could there be any more apt a cautionary statement made today?

Suddenly the cafe quakes and a thunderous noise erupts. Looking out from the cafe, a rhinoceros is seen charging through the center of town. This sparks fear and outrage, and even more so when the rhinoceros returns and tramples the pet cat of a housewife who frequents the cafe, bringing profound grief upon her, and indignity among the others. This outrage is soon defused by arguments over whether it was the same rhinoceros or a second rhinoceros, and further, whether it (or they) is an Asiatic or African rhinoceros, determined by whether it has one or two horns, only there is sharp disagreement over which type of rhino has what number of horns. And just like that, the serious threat of murderous rhinoceroses running wild in the city has been swept aside by other less terrifying questions. The citizens' reaction to this, as to more benign unexpected occurrences, is "Of all things!" repeated so often that it comes to seem like a hoped-for spell to protect them against the unknown.

More rhinos appear in the city, wreaking havoc. Berenger goes to his workplace where a co-worker, Botard, scoffs at the whole idea, thinking it must be mass hallucinations as he has not seen a rhinoceros, though Berenger's report is backed up by Daisy. Botard is not persuaded until Mrs. Boeuf, the wife of a coworker, runs into the office screaming that she was chased down the street by a rhinoceros. She had come to the office to report her husband's absence due to a mysterious ailment. She looks outside and gets her first clear view of the rhinoceros that pursued her, and suddenly realizes that it is her husband.

From this juncture, rhinoceroses arrive quickly, and several of the characters become infected by this bizarre "rhinoceritis," a term coined by those trying to understand the phenomenon as a disease. Berenger visits Jean to apologize for arguing, and more mayhem takes place, until rhinoceroses so outnumber humans that the question becomes, whose behavior is moral, man or beast? Berenger, secluded in his apartment, is visited by Daisy, who make a pact together to withstand the rhinos. Can it hold? Arguments are made for the logic, even the grace and beauty, of rhino behavior and the natural efficacy of the law of the jungle.

Not a word of Ionesco's script has been altered in this production, keenly directed by Pangea's co-artistic director Dipankar Mukherjee, but the story is brought into 2025 with witty touches such as customers at the cafe documenting the goings on with their cell phone cameras, taking selfies and posting them with hashtags appearing as projections at the sides of the proscenium. Those are the work of animator and projection designer Sishir Bommakanti, who also created gentle-looking animated images of rhino heads for our edification. The production also transforms the cultural context with composer Vladimir Garrido's musical accompaniment, using instruments and sounds that draw on indigenous American heritage, a context that takes on particular bearing in Berenger's final gesture.

Ernie Briggs has done fine work on many Twin Cities stages, but his portrayal of Berenger is a leap beyond anything I have seen him do before, a masterful performance capturing the essence of this everyman, self-effacing yet innately wise world view. Tyler Stamm is terrific as Jean, convincingly pompous in a performance that would make you hate him if he weren't so funny, then (spoiler alert) almost earning our sympathy as he recognizes that he is involuntarily going through changes, struggling to maintain his superiority in the face of calamity, and then performing the most stunning act of transformation before our eyes.

Sayli Khadilkar is endearing as level-headed Daisy, though I found it difficult to hear some of her lines in the course of the show. Julie Ann Nevill is a delight, making the serious-minded logician into somewhat of a philosopher-clown, and conveying the requisite fear and alarm as Mrs. Boeuf. Kirby Bennet is incorrigible as the bereaved cat owner in the first scene, and later has great fun conveying Botard's unrelenting cynicism. Mallory K. Lewis is effective as Dudard, a co-worker who is Berenger's competitor for Daisy's attention, officiously taking advantage of Berenger's retreat from work to avoid the plague of rhinoceroses. Others in the cast–Bruce Abas, Nate Kay, Sudarsna Mukund, and Shruti Priti Ramesh–do fine work fleshing out the narrative in a variety of roles.

Orin Herfindal's spare scenic design uses easily rearranged furnishings to create the various settings, with the transition from the scene one cafe to the scene two office presented with marksman-like precision by the actors' relocation of those furnishings. Exquisite lighting design by Brackley Frayer works with the arrangements of furnishings on stage to create discrete spaces, illuminate angles that inform our understanding of the narrative, and convey shifts in tone throughout the play. Abigail Vaughan's costumes playfully exaggerate the nature of each character, while Diego Vasquez Rios's sound design delivers the noises that help to make rhinoceritis so palpable.

I have seen Rhinoceros staged in a production that was rather murky about the characters and themes. No such problem here. Mukherjee, his creative team and actors, have laid out Ionesco's fantastic play with great clarity, and with abundant affection for the characters. There is also a sense of whimsy that modulates the grave implications of rhinoceritis and of Berenger's plight.

Rhinoceros is a challenging play that is not often mounted, but it has much to say about how segments of society are absorbed by waves of thoughts and values, ever more so in the age of social media, that surreptitiously change the way we deal with the world. Theirs is a brief run; I urge readers to catch Pangea World Theater's enthralling production of Rhinoceros.

Rhinoceros, a production of World Theater, runs through April 19, 2025, at the Theater, 1420 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis MN. For tickets and information , please visit www.pangeaworldtheater.org.

Playwright: Eugene Ionesco; Directed by: Dipankar Mukherjee; Assistant Director: Sir Curtis Kirby III; Composer and Musician: Vladimir Garrido; Scenic Design: Orin Herfindal; Costume Design: Abigail Vaughn; Lighting Design: Brackley Frayer; Sound Design: Diego Vasquez Rios; Animator and Projection Design: Sishir Bommakanti; Choreography: Sandra Agustin; Dramaturg: Meena Natarajan; Stage Manager: Suzanne Victoria Cross; Assistant Stage Manager: Noelle Awada.

Cast: Bruce Abas (Papillon/The Old Gentleman), Kirby Bennett (Botard/The Housewife), Ernest Briggs (Berenger), Nate Kay (The Grocer &cafe Proprietor/The Fireman/Townsperson), Sayli Khadilkar (Daisy), Mallory K. Lewis (Dudard/The Grocer's Wife), Sudarsna Mukund (Townsperson), Julie Ann Nevill (The Logician/Mrs. Boeuf), Shruti Priti Ramesh (The Waitress/Townsperson), Tyler Stamm (Jean).