Donate
Menu

Rhinoceros

Ticket Price

Pay What You Can

We Suggest $35
More If You Have it
Less if you don't

Buy Tickets

Location

MATCH
3400 Main St
Houston, TX 77002
Venue Info

Performances

Nov 17, 2017 -
Dec 10, 2017
(no performance Thanksgiving Day)
Thu 7:30p
Fri & Sat 8p
Sun 2:30p
SPECIAL PERFORMANCE:
Monday Dec, 4 7:30p
“I can’t get used to it. I just can’t get used to life.”

Cast & Personnel

Director
Dramaturgy
Cast
Scenic Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Prop Design
Stage Manager
Booth Crew

The Play

A rhinoceros suddenly appears in a sleepy town, trampling through the peaceful streets. Soon another appears, and another, and another until it becomes clear that ordinary citizens are actually transforming into beasts as they learn to “move with the times.” The Catastrophic Theatre continues its tradition of presenting avant-garde classics with Eugene Ionesco’s anti-fascist comedy RHINOCEROS. Full of biting wit and nightmarish anxiety, RHIONOCEROS is a modern masterpiece that comments on the plight of the human condition, made tolerable only by self-delusion. Martin Esslin, author of the classic book THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD, notes that “what the play conveys is the absurdity of defiance as much as the absurdity of conformism, the tragedy of the individualist who cannot join the happy throng of less sensitive people, the artist’s feelings as an outcast….”
 
Ionesco fled Romania in 1938, as more and more of his acquaintances began to adhere to the fascist Iron Guard. Reflecting on how this period in his life informed RHINOCEROS, he noted: “I remembered that in the course of my life I have been very much struck by what one might call the current of opinion, by its rapid evolution, its power of contagion, which is that of a real epidemic. People allow themselves suddenly to be invaded by a new religion, a doctrine, a fanaticism…. At such moments we witness a veritable mental mutation. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but when people no longer share your opinions, when you can no longer make yourself understood by them, one has the impression of being confronted with monsters—rhinos, for example. They have that mix of candor and ferocity. They would kill you with the best of consciences.”
 
One of the landmark plays of the twentieth century, RHINOCEROS premiered in Paris in 1960 in a production directed by, and starring, French theatre legend Jean-Louis Barrault and was seen later the same year at the Royal Court in London, directed by Orson Welles and starring Laurence Olivier. Despite its canonical status, the play has received relatively few professional productions in the U.S. The Catastrophic Theatre’s new production will be directed by Catastrophic co-founder Tamarie Cooper who first fell in love with the play as a students at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

The Playwright

EUGÈNE IONESCO was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and one of the foremost figures of the French Avant-garde theatre. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict the solitude and insignificance of human existence in a tangible way. Ionesco is often considered a writer of the Theatre of the Absurd. This is a label originally given to him by Martin Esslin in his book of the same name, placing Ionesco alongside such contemporary writers as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Arthur Adamov. His works include Amédée (1954); Tueur sans gages (1959-The Killer); Le Rhinocéros (1959-Rhinoceros), Le Roi se meurt (1962-Exit the King), Le Piéton de l’air (1963-A Stroll in the Air); La Soif et la faim (1966- Thirst and Hunger); Jeux de massacre (1970-Killing Game); Macbett (1972), a retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; and Ce formidable bordel (1973-A Hell of a Mess). Rhinoceros, a play about totalitarianism, remains Ionesco’s most popular work.

In the Media

Catastrophic Theatre’s ‘Rhinoceros’ could not be more relevant
November 22, 2017 | The Courier of Montgomery County | Robert Donahoo
Catastrophic Theatre’s production of ‘Rhinoceros’ resonates
November 22, 2017 | Houston Chronicle | Wei-Huan Chen
Rhinoceros Thrillingly Sounds The Alarm Bell
November 18, 2017 | Houston Press | Jessica Goldman
Rhinoceros Offers an Absurd Take on ‘Trump People’
November 14, 2017 | Houstonia | Holly Beretto
Catastrophic’s Rhinoceros: Just Another Word for Mob Mentality?
October 26, 2017 | Houston Press | Margaret Downing

Photo Sets

Videos

After all, this is a superbly assembled cast working together in perfect absurdist harmony.
— Jessica Goldman, Houston Press
Terrifying and intoxicating
— Wei Huan Chen, Houston Chronicle
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

For the latest about Catastrophic Theatre productions, events and more

Sponsors