Have you herd?
An original translation of Eugène Ionesco’s seminal play
Translated & Directed by Frank Labovitz. #herdmentality
RUNNING TIME: 2 hours + 15 minute intermission.
SYNOPSIS
First produced in 1959, Rhinocéros! presents a small town overrun with radical ideas, clashing ideology and not so subtle transformations. When Beringer, a local drunk, finds himself surrounded by neighbors who are slowly turning into giant beasts, he’s forced to navigate a new world where the rights of citizens are changing as rapidly as the body of the mob around him.
While the original script serves as an allegory for the rise of Fascism in mid 20th century Europe, the story presents a familiar tone in public discourse and examines the ways in which a public is quickly radicalized.
Employing large scale puppetry to represent the transformation of people to beast, audiences will be confronted face to face with a cast of life size creatures.
Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer
“JEAN: instead of spending all your available money on drink, isn’t it better to buy theater tickets and see an interesting play? Have you seen the work of pointless theatre company?
BERENGER: no alas! i’ve only heard about them….
JEAN: there’s a show going on right now. enjoy it.”
Washington City Paper | Labovitz’s often hilarious translation maintains a buoyant rhythm throughout, and would well serve other American theater companies interested in staging this classic. Most importantly it respects Ionesco’s layers of meaning while also leaving the central metaphor of rhinocerization open to our more modern concerns: In 2022, it’s hard not to think of the early days of the COVID pandemic when the spread was exponential, or of the populist rage that led to the Jan. 6 Insurrection (fittingly, in October, Pointless held their season launch party at Comet Ping Pong, the subject of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory), or like the soon-to-be-rhinoceroses, so many users of social media who treat the brevity of clichés and memes as the soul of wit, their behaviors become indistinguishable from Twitter bots deployed to sow discord.
PRESS
ENSEMBLE & CREATIVE TEAM
FRANK LABOVITZ, Director
JAMES RAYMOND, Scenic Designer
HAILEY LAROE, Lighting Designer
JESS RASSP, Puppet Design
KITT CRESCENZO, Costume Designer
AJ JOHNSON, Sound Designer
TOMMY SHERROD, Composer
KRISTEN GEATZ, Stage Manager
JACKIE LITTMAN, Poster Art
MARY MYERS, Berenger
MOMO NAKAMURA, Daisy
LEE GERSTENHABER, Old Gentleman/Botard
NICK MARTIN, Logician/Firefighter
NICHOLAS TEMPLE, Waiter/Dudard
NIUSHA NAWAB, Cafe Manager
MELISSA CARTER, Grocer's Wife/Mrs. Boeuf
MADELINE KEY, Housewife
STEPHEN MURRAY, Jean
JOSHUA WILLIAMS, Grocer/Papillion