Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”, directed by Piotr Pawłowski

Developed by Tadeusz Kantor, designs for the costumes to be used in this production of “Rhinoceros” were an expression of his Tachisme-inspired experiments in painting and theatre. He inserted pieces of artificial stuff covered in tangled lines and spots into tricot forms. Actors performed in wigs; props included stools with streamlined forms and an umbrella with a metal frame and a torn canopy. From the programme for the production of “Rhinoceros”: “[an actor’s individuality] must pervade and give life to this new organism [costume], which is and should be a closest possible union of the living matter of a human body and a stage form”. About working on Ionesco’s play Kantor also wrote: “the costume is an alien creature parasitizing on the human body… growing increasingly independent.”