Instead of making it hard for me to direct him, he made it almost impossible for me to direct the cast.

Welles described 'The way got me in this was to take all of my directions like a perfect soldier, never argue with them, and always do them.and he took every actor aside and told them I was misdirecting them. The production was troubled, with Olivier and Welles clashing in their interpretations of the play. Īs well as directing the play, Welles also designed the set, costumes, lighting and sound effects. In this production, the play was relocated from a busy Paris street to a London pub, with a highly elaborate set filled with swinging doors, trapdoors, television monitors, trick mirrors, and advanced special effects. But throughout rehearsals, every day, it seemed to me I liked Ionesco less as a playwright.' And it worked - it always seems to work everywhere no matter how it's done. I agreed to it because I thought the gimmick was good enough so that you could invent an evening in the theatre about it.

I hate it.But I wanted to do it because of Larry.' He told another biographer 'I didn't like the play. In later years, he admitted to one biographer that he had been mainly motivated by the chance to work with Olivier, whom he had long admired, but that he thought 'It's a terrible play. He was approached by his de facto British agent Wolf Mankowitz with an offer to direct Rhinoceros. But the commercial failure of the play made that impossible, and Welles sought a new project. In March 1960, Welles's play Chimes at Midnight had just closed after an unsuccessful run in Dublin, dashing his hopes of transferring to London. Olivier also co-produced the play, which was Welles's last work as a theatre director.

It was the first English-language production of the play, starred future husband-and-wife team Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright, and was directed by Orson Welles. Rhinoceros was a 1960 production of Eugène Ionesco's surrealist play of the same name, which had been written the year before. Royal Court Theatre, London (this production)

Rhinoceros eugène ionesco