One sunny day in a quaint provincial square, Berenger and Jean have arranged to meet at a café before the town is thrown into chaos when one by one, its residents begin transforming into rhinoceroses. Who will hold on to their humanity and who will get horny?
Ionesco’s absurdist cult classic locks horns with political extremism, conformity and responsibility at the end of the world, brought stampeding into the twenty-first century by the acerbic pen of Zinnie Harris.
Spinning Plates Co. return to fortyfivedownstairs in 2024 with a contemporary translation of Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, in a new version by Zinnie Harris. This marks the second instalment in the company’s Beast Trilogy, following 2023’s wildly successful presentation of The Crocodile, which had two sell-out seasons and won three Green Room Awards in 2024, including Best Direction for Fumi, Best Set & Costume Design for Barber, and Best Performer for Cait Spiker.
The dynamic director and designer duo of Cassandra Fumi (World Problems, MTC) and Dann Barber (Yentl, Malthouse) return alongside acclaimed lighting designer Rachel Burke (My Sister Jill, MTC) and talented sound artist Rachel Lewindon (Far Away, patalog theatre) with additional set design by Jacob Battista (A Very Jewish Christmas Carol, MTC).
Rhinoceros features returning cast James Cerché (The Crocodile, fortyfivedownstairs), Joey Lai (An Ideal Husband, MTC) Jessica Stanley (JSMR, Trades Hall), and Cait Spiker (Traps, La Mama) alongside new castmates John Marc Desengano (Looking for Alibrandi, Malthouse), Belinda Anderson-Hunt (The Sun & the Hermit, Motley Bauhaus), Zachary Pidd (My Sister Jill, MTC) and Annabelle Tudor (Much Ado About Nothing, MSC).
Cerché and Stanley began the award-winning independent collective Spinning Plates Co. in 2018, but their personal history goes back to 2010 when they first met after being cast as a husband and wife in The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh at Monash University. Now having been a couple for nearly ten years, they feel lucky to be a creative team in so many aspects of their lives. “We support each other through the ebb and flows of this industry. Sometimes it’s one person’s turn in the spotlight, so to speak, and then it’s the other’s”, they say. Last year, Stanley spent a month in regional Tasmania shooting a feature film while Cerché took care of business from home, while over the summer months he often joins the cast of Australian Shakespeare Company in the Botanical Gardens, meaning it’s Stanley’s turn to take over the supporting role. During lockdown in 2021, Cerché helped Stanley film her ASMR-based digital show JSMR from their home, which went on to win the Art Unbound Award at Melbourne Fringe. In 2022, Stanley wrote one-person show Shut Up I’m a Vampire, which Cerché underscored live every night on stage, earning Spinning Plates their first Green Room nomination for Best Sound Design and Composition. As a day job, the two regularly tour Victoria with educational theatre company Complete Works. Knowing how much theatrical experiences in high school helped hone their passion, they ensured that The Crocodile made it onto the VCE Theatre Studies Playlist in 2023, and when possible, include student secondments in their productions.
“Rhinoceros presented itself very quickly to us as the perfect follow up piece to The Crocodile. The opportunity to take the aesthetic and thematic concerns of Basden’s monstrous hit even further using Harris’ take on Ionesco felt too good to pass up. It felt kismet when it was then announced that Zinnie’s plays Meet Me at Dawn and Macbeth: An Undoing were being done in the same year at MTC and Malthouse respectively—clearly, her writing speaks to something right now in the zeitgeist. We are delighted to be continuing work with many of the hands responsible for The Crocodile’s success and look forward to pushing the madness into places that are wonderous, wicked and worryingly close to home.” —Spinning Plates Co.
October 31 – November 17
