Paul Giamatti as Jean and John Turturro as Berenger in Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”. ~Photos by Keith Foster

By Keith Foster

The latest play featured at the American Repertory Theater in Harvard Square is the absurdist comedy stage play Rhinoceros by French playwright Eugene Ionesco, translated into English by Derek Prouse. The play’s engagement from August 14 to September 27 features the Hollywood elites Paul Giamatti and John Turturro. Giamatti plays Jean, and Turturro plays Berenger.

The play was written by Ionesco when he was a young man living in Romania, experiencing the rise of fascism in the 1930s. He watched as friends and family near and dear slowly joined the Iron Guard – the Roman Nazism. The Iron Guard was a violent, far-right fascist movement in Romania active from 1927 through 1941. Founded by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, it blended intense nationalism, strict anti-communism, and extreme antisemitism with Romanian Orthodox Christian mysticism, according to Study.com.

Berenger witnesses everyone around him turning into rhinoceroses, including Giamatti’s Jean. In the end, everyone became rhinoceroses except Berenger, who was our hero. He did not want to give in to this form of fascism. The play has an ambiguous ending where we see Berenger beginning the fight against the rhinoceroses, then fade to black.

The play was stellar. I’ve always been familiar with Turturro and Giamatti, and having them both here in this famous play was a thrill. The other players were great as well. The third famous actor in this play is Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany, from the show Orphan Black and movies like The Monkey and Stronger, who played Daisy, Berenger’s co-worker and love interest.

This production was directed for the A.R.T. by Diane Paulus, it’s her last show at the Loeb, she will continue at A.R.T. when they move to the Goel Center.  Rhinoceros is now playing through September 27, American Repertory Theater, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge. https://americanrepertorytheater.org/

Sign for “Rhinoceros” outside the American Repertory Theatre in Harvard Square.