TASK 8 (what a lovely title!)

Stockholm Syndrome

Rhinoceros, Eugene Ionesco’s masterpiece about people’s reaction to group pressure and their supposedly strange behavior, is formidable (but not pompous) play which is still up-to-date. Joe Penhall’s review of the play is quite thorough and contains many interesting observations. 

  As it was mentioned several times on this blog, the play itself is full of hopeless interactions between people, the feeling of futility of being and the absurdity of life. Because of this, Penhall compares Rhinoceros to The Plague written by A. Camus, claiming that they are both based on the existentialism. Interestingly, both Camus and Ionesco were against the ‘existentialist’ label and preferred their works to be called absurdist. Nonetheless, it cannot be doubted that the ideas of existentialism appear in their plays more than often. Finally, absurdity is part of existentialism and they cannot be clearly separated in this context.

  In his review, Penhall mentions the Stockholm syndrome, a psychological phenomenon in which the captors are admired by their hostages and the hostages cooperate with them and accept their views and positions. This idea is brilliant in the association with the play. Even though they were the evil creatures at the beginning, everybody finally accepts the rhinos and joins them, which is a nice manifestation of such syndrome. It is somewhat natural, because ‘most children know that the smart thing is to side with the biggest, baddest bully in the playground’ (Penhall). 

  Concerning the relevance of the play, it is true that Ionesco stays quite general, so as to emphasize that the theme of his play is applicable to any society. In the words of the reviewer of this play:  “Perhaps Ionesco deliberately eschewed Camus' specificity and embraced generality in the hope that for all its antic lack of sophistication, bluster, bustle and loquaciousness, Rhinoceros would remain contemporary and universal.” 

REVIEW: 

Penhall, Joe. "Ionesco's Rhinoceros is as relevant as ever."Guardian. (2007). Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2007/oct/03/ionescosrhinocerosisasrele>.