An Epiphany about Rhinoceros by Ionesco

I was thinking about my recent post on Ionesco's Rhinoceros. About that time when I played it too. And it struck me, I had an epiphany about it: it is a zombie story. It is Night of the Living Dead with more dialogues and an absurd setting. At its core it is the story of an epidemy, one that strikes the body as much as the mind. And the rhinos are just as malevolent as the zombies, maybe even more so. Like many of Ionesco's plays, there is a very sinister side to it, that can be missed sometimes. I watched this performance of Jean's transformation on YouTube. I played the same scene, and indeed the Jean character. I think I got it better, because I played it sinister, like a man turning into a monster. Which is I think the whole point. The play is scary as much as it is funny.

An anecdote about rhinoceroses

I remembered something today, I don't know why exactly. A conversation I had more than two years ago with my then colleagues at the last school I worked in. I am not very nostalgic from that era, although I did enjoy the people there. I never felt I was very important, for the administration I was little more than nothing, but with the teachers and teaching assistants I did feel part of the team. They treated me well. And because of this I was more sociable with them than I was with the people working at the previous school. So I talked more. This is an anecdote about one of those conversations.

It was near the end of my contract, at lunchtime. For some reasons, somebody mentioned rhinos. One of the history teachers, an Irishman, said that the name black rhinoceros and white rhinoceros had nothing to do with their colour. And he kept talking about rhinoceros, telling us that he had learned a lot about these animals, for some reason. I mentioned Ionesco's play Rhinoceros, in which I once performed the role of Jean, who turns in the middle act into a rhino on stage. I mentioned it on the blog here. It was a troubled production, but I was very proud of my performance, so I do mention it from time to time. My rhino obsessed colleague knew about the play, he had an actor friend who even had sent it a copy of one its performances in English. I thought it was strange, I read little about rhinos for the play and this guy's only interest in a classic French absurd play was that it featured his favourite animal. So this was the anecdote. I kind of miss the lunch time conversations there.

Suis-je en train de devenir un Anglais?

Je me pose cette question parfois. J'en ferai peut-être un jour une question existentielle (lisez la dernière, en passant), mais il faut pour cela que ça ait une portée un peu plus universelle. Enfin, l'un des commentateurs sur le blogue de Prof Solitaire m'a fait la remarque récemment, dans un des billets du Prof. Il paraît que je m'exprime à l'anglaise lorsque je commente, avec des phrases brèves et flegmatiques. Je pensais que c'était une fausse perception et puis ce matin alors que je mangeais mon déjeuner, je me suis rendu compte que c'était un déjeuner caricarturalement anglais: toasts avec confiture (Wilkin & Sons pour demeurer dans la caricature) et thé... Au moins, je bois le thé sans lait et il a été acheté en Bretagne. Mais sinon, qu'est-ce que je suis caricaturalement anglais aujourd'hui. Je pourrais jouer Monsieur Smith dans cette pièce et il serait très facile de me mettre dans la peau du personnage.

Je me demande bien si, lorsqu'on aime une culture, on ne risque pas d'aimer plutôt ses clichés... Ce qui est pire, c'est lorsqu'on les intègre, les intériorise.

Getting the raspy voice

It was my acting class yesterday. The teacher could finally see the almost finished product. I say almost because I am not quite there, but I am very close. I am playing this very old man, dying and bitter and nasty, and I got the voice right. Not perfect yet, but right. Sure, my English is still flawed, but the raspy voice I have manages to hide them. My teacher was impressed when she heard the voice (and how nice does it feel to impress a pro!), she asked: "How did you get it?" I answered: "Peanut butter". Which is true: I have peanut butter toasts for dinner before class and it does irritate your throat a bit. When I was learning to sing, Claudiiine warned me against it before class. I wouldn't be able to sing after rehearsal, I felt like I had a cold.

I am half joking of course: getting a raspy voice is easy when you get in character. I once played in Rhinoceros by Ionesco and I had to turn into a rhino in the second act: I had to grow a raspy voice within the play (among other challenges). It left me exhausted, but it was great fun. I thought about it a lot when I got home yesterday, the throat on fire. It was painful, but I really enjoyed it.

I miss the stage

Okay, this is another nostalgic entry. I didn't know when to write it, but this is a rainy Sunday and it is just a good time as any. I used to do acting, a long, long time ago. I started it by chance, the production of the French play at university was short of one actor to play the role of Purgon in Le Malade imaginaire. It was just a few lines, so I decided to go along. I got hooked. The next year I got a much more important role (in Ionesco's Rhinocéros, where I had to change into a rhino in Act II) and then I got the main part in La Farce de maître Pierre Pathelin the following year. I was pretty good, maybe even talented, enough to get some acting lessons in Montreal, where I learned that talent is one thing, but you need to work very hard to become professional. I didn't pursue my career, but I loved, loved, loved the experience and I often miss it.

In my life, I have been attracted by two performing arts: opera and acting. There is a pleasure about getting on stage and playing a character, making an audience connect to you emotionally that is exhilarating. I said acting is very hard, but it can really easy in some aspects. Memorising the lines was for me a piece of cake: you just have to read them often enough, and besides a character gets in your body, literally, so the lines come naturally enough, if you can get into the character (or, more accurately, if you can get the character to be in you). Now, getting the emotions right and interacting naturally with the cast, that's trickier. But in the end, when you are in front of an audience and it works, there is nothing more satisfying than that. And that is why I miss the stage.