Review: Avant-Garde Drama, RHINOCEROS, Entertains Audiences at Edmonton's Timms Centre for the Arts

The citizens of an idyllic French village are disappearing one by one. However, the streets are anything but silent. Instead, they are stormed by a herd of charging rhinoceroses that grows bigger by the day. Soon, disillusioned office worker, Bérenger, makes a terrifying discovery: his fellow villagers are inexplicably transforming into rhinoceroses. As the days pass, the herd only multiplies, threatening to claim not only the lives of Bérenger's friends but his own.

Rhinoceros, Eugène Ionesco's 1959 drama, is a tense, darkly humorous exploration of conformity, morality, and mob mentality. Under Jake Planinc's direction, the production comes to life at The University of Alberta's Timms Centre for the Arts. Featuring a talented nine-person cast comprised of the university's drama students and alumni, Rhinoceros is complete with a charming set and emotive lighting that often belies the narrative's brewing danger.

In the middle of the village's mounting chaos is Bérenger, an unhappy newsroom worker and alcoholic. Will Gosse shines in this challenging role, painting a vivid and often heartbreaking portrait of a man struggling to cling to his own beliefs and ideologies. Bérenger's precarious friendship with the standoffish Jean (Patrick Lynn) is particularly compelling. Gosse and Lynn completely disappear into their respective roles, portraying a tumultuous friendship simmering with tension. Bérenger's co-worker and love interest, Daisy, is brought to life by Amy Bazin, who delivers an engaging performance as a chipper young woman struggling to defy collective complacency. The rest of the characters also come to life on Ankita Yadav's Wes Anderson-esque set, most notably Rogan Coffey as the verbose logician and Yassine El Fihri as Bérenger's co-worker, Dudard.

Though the unconventional narrative clips along at a steady pace, the characters' repetitive dialogue occasionally detracts from the play's increasing urgency. Many of the villagers' heated debates brim with reflections on other relevant topics including race and religion, packing an intellectual punch. Despite being written over 60 years ago, Rhinoceros has the flair of an avant-garde twentieth century play. Simultaneously tense and entertaining, it is a complex production that will linger with audiences long after the final curtain.

Rhinoceros plays at The University of Alberta's Timms Centre for the Arts until February 18.

Photo from The University of Alberta's Timms Centre for the Arts' Studio Theatre

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