This play about a town getting overrun by angry rhinos is surprisingly relevant

In the basement theatre of fortyfivedownstairs, a transformation is taking place. A town plaza somewhere in provincial France is being taken over by overbearing beasts, dangerous and aggressive. One baffled local (Cait Spiker) resists conformity and extremism as, one by one, her neighbours begin turning into angry rhinos.

This is Rhinoceros, a new staging of Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 play, directed by Cassandra Fumi, and produced by Melbourne’s Spinning Plates Co, the team behind last year’s hit The Crocodile.

The cast of Rhinoceros, which will be performed at fortyfivedownstairs from this week. Credit: Simon Schluter

And yes, it’s a metaphor. The play was originally written with the rise of fascism in mind. In today’s climate of division, and on the eve of a particularly frightening American election, producers and co-stars James Cerche and Jess Stanley didn’t have to dig deep to find contemporary relevance.

“It’s really about the political divide,” says Cerche. “We’re living in a time when the grey area is so hard to be in. It’s yes or no, the left and right butting heads, and failing to communicate ideas. Absurdist theatre is about the failure to communicate between people. The play is about the spread of an idea. Something dangerous.”

“It’s very absurd, the play, and funny, but deeply troubling,” says Stanley. “It’s hard to hold onto your own values and morality in a time when sharing your voice has become such a dangerous thing.”

Last year, The Crocodile had two successful runs at fortyfivedownstairs. Adapted by British playwright Tom Basden from a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, it’s a comedy about a man who is swallowed alive by a crocodile and finds life inside the beast strangely agreeable. Spinning Plates’ version was a modern Australian take on a Russian classic, praised for its elaborate costumes and strong performances.

Jess Stanley and James Cerche didn’t have to dig deep to find contemporary relevance in the plot of Rhinoceros.Credit: Simon Schluter

Earlier this year, it won three Green Room Awards: Best Direction for Cassandra Fumi, Best Set & Costume Design for Dann Barber, and Best Performer for Cait Spiker.

With a script adapted by British playwright Zinnie Harris, Rhinoceros is an exercise in recycling, from its roots as a 1959 play to its design aesthetic. The result is a patchwork of visual cultures that feels absurd but eerily familiar. I get a glimpse at a moodboard on Stanley’s phone, containing European Surrealist paintings, a photo of Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, David Byrne’s big suit in Stop Making Sense, and JD Vance at a Republican rally. Costumes include suits stitched together from op-shop finds (with Salvos price tags in situ), and shoes made from McDonald’s wrappers. The performances draw on French Bouffon clowning, and Cerche and Stanley cite the current trends of absurdism and body horror in the cinema, such as the films of Yorgos Lanthimos and the transformations of The Substance.

But despite the European and American influences, everything is delivered in thick Australian accents. Strictly Ballroom is an influence too. It’s “Australian avant garde”, as Stanley puts it.

Cerche and Stanley are partners in life as well as art, and they created Spinning Plates to make the kind of pieces they wanted to appear in. That enthusiasm is infectious, and most of the cast and crew are back from The Crocodile.

“We have no right to be working with the calibre of people we work with,” says Cerche. “Dann opened a show at the Sydney Opera House last week,” says Stanley. She’s talking about Yentl, for which designer Dann Barber also received a Green Room Award for his design. “We can’t pay him as much from our independent theatre pockets. But he likes working with us because of that language, and we want him to do what he thinks best.”

In fact, Cerche and Barber have been friends since childhood. They used to watch horror movies together, and put on zero-budget plays as teenagers. Together with Stanley and the rest of the team, they have developed a common language.

So they’re back for Rhinoceros, and they’ll be back again. This is the second in what they’re playfully calling “The Beast Trilogy”, a way of keeping the momentum up after the success of The Crocodile. They have no idea what the third might be.

“When we were discussing this, I jokingly said ‘The Beast Trilogy’, and we all said, yes, let’s do it,” says Stanley. “It just felt right.”

Rhinoceros is at fortyfivedownstairs from October 31 to November 17.

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