Rhinoceros

The plot to "Rhinoceros" is something right out of "The Twilight Zone": A city is overrun by rhinos that turn out to be its residents that have been changed by some mysterious force. Yet Eug�ne Ionesco's play ignores these sci-fi aspects -- this is no "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," despite dating from that film's time period -- the late 1950s when the Cold War raged. It does, though, share that classic film's underlying message that totalitarian regimes breed mindless conformity. Ionesco saw it as a crazy, if daunting comedy about a slacker who dares not to succumb to the phenomena around him. And its famous concluding image -- a lone man facing a stage full of rhinos -- speaks to the notion of the democratic ideal that resonates during this peculiar election year.

Wesley Slavick's sleek, minimal production at the Modern Theatre through March 13 wisely ignores the rhino in the room by never mentioning Donald Trump, but it's hard to leave the production without thinking of the candidate's peculiar grip on a sizable portion of the electorate. That is the beauty of Ionesco's play whose central metaphor will always be pertinent, something that Slavick only needs to infer. Though Slavick does allude to the Trump phenomena in his program notes referring to a New York Times opinion piece by David Brooks in which the columnist refers to the presidential race: "there is a tone of ugliness creeping across the world," Brooks wrote, "as democracies retreat, as tribalism mounts, as suspiciousness and authoritarianism take center stage."

Ionesco was a survivor of how that ugliness reared its head in the mid-20th century, first in his native Rumania where he observed first-hand the fascist politics of right-wing Iron Guard, then during World War Two when he lived through the Nazi occupation of France, his adopted nation. He first wrote "Rhinoceros" as a short story in 1957 before expanding into a full-length play that premiered in 1959 in France, then 1961 in New York in a celebrated production with Zero Mostel as Ionesco's beleaguered hero Berenger. Curiously, it is less frequently performed today, which makes the current production so welcome.

Slavick, who did the adaptation from Derek Prouse's translation, updates the action to contemporary Boston. The rhino that disrupts an urban landscape in the first scene does so on Newbury Street. The local ambiance, though, is largely made through verbal references - the play itself transpires on platforms that thrust into the audience (the set design is by Sara Brown). The bare-boned approach does make for a fluid production (the play's three acts unfold in 110 intermissionless minutes); and the company is game at bringing to life Ionesco's perplexed urbanites.

Yet sometimes the balance felt off - over-the-top moments in the crowd scenes felt at odd with the more nuanced comedy found in the central relationship of slacker Berenger (Nael Nacer) and prissy Jean (Alex Pollack). Ionesco sets them up as an odd couple - the slob and the fussbudget, which Nacer and Pollack capitalize on with their exacting performances and strong chemistry. At first they play it for laughs: Berenger turns up late for a luncheon date on Newbury Street, which only annoys Jean. Worse he reeks of partying the night before. Jean berates him with prissy superiority; that is until a rhinoceros rampages down the street, which understandably alarms him. Berenger is far less concerned, even as a rhino turns up at the newspaper office where he works; but becomes convinced when Jean grows horns before his very eyes.

This transformation splendidly is played by Pollack as a man who, at first, fights the change, then succumb to it. It is the production's high point, which may be why the final scene in which Berenger is joined by Daisy (Raya Malcolm), the woman he's smitten with, and another friend Stinger (Brian Bernhard) felt anti-climatical. Of course there's that stirring final image that's hauntingly rendered here, but what came immediately before it had me wishing that Jean would rampage through in a rhino rage. Still Ionesco's clipped dialogue is given a welcome colloquial spin in Slavick's updating, which is nicely served by his lean, intimate staging. In the end the takeaway from this production is it will likely leave you thinking of the irresistible rise of Donald Drumpf (thanks John Oliver), which makes this half-century old play the most relevant show in town.

Rhinoceros, a co-production between Boston Playwrights Theatre and Suffolk University, continues through March 13 at the Modern Theatre, 525 Washington Street, Boston, MA. For more information, the Boston Playwrights Theatre website.