Rhinoceros makes a play for the US audience

Rhinoceros in Love is staged by Chinese college students in Nw York. Photo provided to China Daily

Tickling the funny bone

War play

On a rainy weekday evening, Wang Haichao, producer of the play Rhinoceros in Love, greeted audiences at the entrance of the Asia Society theater in Manhattan as cast members waited to go on stage.

The cast - all Chinese college students in New York from a variety of academic fields including mathematics, business, philosophy, economics, history, accounting, actuary and film - had rehearsed for more than six months for this opening - night performance on Nov 27.

"We all consider this project as something meaningful that we can contribute to the Chinese community in the United States, especially international students like us who make it here from China," Wang says.

Rhinoceros in Love is one of China's record-setting plays. Originally staged in 1999,the play had its 1,000th performance in Beijing in August 2012,and is still being presented.

The play is about the love story of a rhino feeder, Ma Lu, and his pursuit of his neighbor Ming Ming. The rhinoceros' poor eyesight is used in the story as a metaphor to symbolize the blindness of unrequited love.

Liao Yimei, the original playwright, writes: "Being wise means refraining from doing those impossible, illogical and thankless things." Yet for Ma Lu, the protagonist in the play, this was a rule that applies to almost everything except for love.

Being a monomaniac in others' eyes, Ma might be considered a rhinoceros among people, an eccentric man, in today's world where everyone knows how to make a wise choice to avoid being hurt or mocked.

"The truth is that without monomania, there would be no breakthroughs, no progress and no new beginnings that you may have never expected," Liao writes.

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