On the 21st of May, Tom Gutteridge’s directorial debut with the Union House Theatre, Rhinoceros opened to an expectant audience. Our new Artistic Director had taken the Ionesco classic and reinvented it to compliment the modern-day world. For those who are simply thrown with the title, Ionesco’s Everyman, Berenger (also featured in Exit the King, The Killer, A Stroll in the Air) watches as his surrounding world descends (or ascends) to the lure of the animal, in the form of a rhinoceros. The concept itself can sure raise a brow, but what else can one expect of the Absurd at its best. As such, Rhinoceros can only be tackled with a pinch of sanity and a cauldron-full of satire.
Gutteridge had successfully transformed the piece to suit modern day perceptions of society’s clichés, particularly (and most amusingly), the Aussie metrosexual bike buddy. The setting of the shopping-mall could not be better; it appears to be the breeding-ground for the conventional, thus making the sudden stampede of a rhino (we’re yet to know if it is an Asian or African) a pin to burst the bubble that the Western society has placed around itself. The set was comfortably bland, accompanied with neon lighting and that repetitive music one finds in both elevators and shopping malls. I was convinced of my mall-induced boredom at first, however, much like the characters I was swept up in the chaos of happening – the appearance of the rhinoceros.
The rhinoceros can symbolize most anything, from what Gutteridge wrote in the programme, “fascists… migrants, capitalists or terrorists”. I personally perceived the rhino’s sudden appearance in the every day as to highlight the weakness in humanity, as if nature was reaffirming its power in a man-dominated world. Underneath the veneer of reason, awareness and social convention, lurks the rhino within all humans, or simply the representation of the modern day jungle. One could write a thesis on the loaded meaning behind the work, and Gutteridge has left the interpretation relatively open in his piece to ensure the individual audience member selects what they choose to take from the performance.
One moment that captured a genuine gasp from the audience was when the shopping princess returns after rhino number two with a trampled and bloody, soft-toy cat. It certainly made me uncomfortable, and I imagine it was due to the light mood that settled earlier within the show. Suddenly this happening could be dangerous, not only in a physical sense, but in a manner that posed a danger to all that Berenger (Kevin Ponniah) understood of his world.
The standouts from the cast included Biddy O’Loughlin’s lovely and believable Daisy and Laura Maitland’s sardonic and chuckle-worthy Boot and Logician. Something must also be said for Ananth Gopal’s admirable agility mid-rhino transformation. Luke McMahon was also enjoyable as Block, with that manner so befitting an office clerk. A couple of the featured interventions (which served as random acts penetrating more of that ordinary) were amusing. The koala provoked many laughs, supporting that notion of spectacle being just as comic as a well-told joke. The eighteenth-century tap-dancer also proved a worthwhile distraction, and perhaps stood out amongst other interventions that were less noticeable.
In the final moments of the play, where Berenger and Daisy were struck by their pervading sense of futility and isolation, I too experienced their terror in a world that had seemingly turned mad. Just before I sunk into denial of my pondering such a possibility, the dancing actors with cardboard rhino heads accompanied by jungle music preserved my sanity and actually helped me understand why Daisy ultimately abandoned herself to the call of the rhinoceros.
Perhaps we all just want to belong, even if it means having two horns on one’s head. After all, how can our lives make any sense without anyone else to justify our existence?
Review by Leeor Adar
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Posted Tuesday 2 June, 2009. Updated Tuesday 2 June, 2009.
