Anoushka Lucas and Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù in Rhinoceros [Marc Brenner]

MASTER of the absurd, Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 play Rhinoceros was his response to the rise of fascism 20 years earlier. Director Omar Elerian’s translation amplifies the Romanian-French playwright’s themes of social conformity and herd mentality.

Paul Hunter, our narrator-provocateur for the evening, recites stage directions, directs audience participation and introduces us to a series of characters dressed in white lab coats.

We are in a small French town. A lady (Sophie Steer) walks across the stage carrying her cat, represented by a watermelon.

Jean (Joshua McGuire) and Berenger (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) meet for a drink, but are disturbed by the sound of a rhinoceros charging down the main street. Jean is incredulous while Berenger continues to nurse his hangover.

When another rhinoceros thunders past, mayhem ensues. The lady’s cat is crushed (cue a smashed watermelon) and the second sighting provokes violent disagreement among the locals: are they Asiatic or African rhinos, with one horn or two?

It is not long before more beasts appear and we learn that the inhabitants are changing into rhinos at an alarming rate. Jean’s metamorphosis is particularly well executed. When Berenger and his love interest, Daisy (Anoushka Lucas) find themselves the only two humans left in town, it feels truly terrifying.

Initially, Elerian’s production plays for laughs and we easily warm to the slapstick humour, visual gags and use of kazoos to convey the rhinos’ trumpeting.

The second half takes on a harder, darker edge, culminating in Berenger’s final heroic stand against joining the masses.

The production occasionally gets bogged down in its metatheatricality, but a superb cast and imaginative staging keep us invested in Ionesco’s surreal fable until its devastating conclusion, which is ramped up to chilling effect.

A timely warning from the past.

Until April 26
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