←Recommendations of Escobar's Hippo

Oh wow, I can feel my brain tingling after reading this wonderfully absurdist satire, yet another impressive offering from Gonzalez's endlessly fertile imagination. The play references a famous one by Ionesco but goes to very different and unexpected places. The multiple metaphors wind around each other, expand and contract, and leave the reader thinking about more issues relevant to humanity and society then I would care to count. An impressive tour-de-force with sharp humor and striking visuals throughout.

Gonzalez’s “Escobar’s Hippo” is a strong absurdist adaptation of pioneer playwright Eugene Ionesco and his play “Rhinoceros.” The beauty of this script is knowledge of Ionesco and his work isn’t a prerequisite to enjoy “Escobar’s Hippo.” This piece is didactic in a way, as it teaches the audience about humanity, society and the corrosiveness of mob mentality and its influence over our decision making. With this being a work in progress, I cannot wait to see where Gonzalez takes this piece next. One to keep your eye on.

A strong absurdist play which stands as both a tribute to the masters of yesteryears and as a bold new work that challenges our perception of our place in this world. Franky takes an old work like Ionesco Rhinoceros and turns it over, gives it a lift, and creates a new classic in the process.

The trickiest aspect of adaptation is deciding how much of the original the audience benefits by knowing, and how much the adaptation stands on its own. Here Franky Gonzalez has taken Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" and converted Bérenger, Daisy, Jean, and rhinos in France into Bernardo, Dalia, Juan, and hippos in Colombia. With a serving of arepas. It would take some side-by-side analysis to trace how Gonzalez plays with the original, but having not read the Ionesco in many years, I can affirm that this new version with its humor, excitement, and cunning dialogue more than stands on its own hippo-feet...

I was not expecting to contemplate the fundamentals of human instinct while also reading about a literal poop fan, but here we are. This play is an absolute delight. I learned so much about humanity, society, and of course, hippos. I loved that we met our main characters with their flaws first and I got so excited every time the mayor and the townspeople showed up on the page. So good!

Oh dear God, how I love this play! It's working on so many levels at once, from outrageous farce, to absurdist comedy, to dark morality tale, to... to... to..., and every single one lands with the force of the titular hippo. Wonderfully fresh, exciting and theatrical, if this is a work in progress, I can only imagine – with breathless anticipation – what higher levels Gonzalez will take this, as it's pretty damn well perfect already.

Fresh, hilarious, dark, and HUGE. Gonzalez packs his talents for pushing you off your chair in laughter and then kicking you in the gut with heavy doses of reality. Prepare to be stomped into the ground and covered with all that brown stuff as it hits the ugh...booty fan. "Escobar's Hippo" reminds us all that humanity is grotesque, viscous, and morbid--and the only thing separating us from becoming true animals.

An absurdist romp. And boy is it ever a ROMP!
And, as we have come to expect from Franky Gonzalez, even at the heights of superbly realized satire, every single syllable, every nuance, comes laced with deep thoughtfulness and unique expression of ideas.
And I haven't even gotten to the hippopotamus tracks that line some of the pages. Adorbs!
I fully expect theatrical directors across the globe to be lining up to give their eyeteeth for the chance to work with this script. Somewhere, Stanley Kubrick rolls in his grave, lamenting that Gonzalez wrote this too late.
A masterpiece.