RHINOCEROS by Eugene Ionesco

The Catastrophic Theatre is running Rhinoceros at MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center) through October 10, with the production having opened back on September 18. It's a subversive comedy by Eugene Ionesco, directed by the company's co-founder Tamarie Cooper. The play is a cornerstone of the Theatre of the Absurd, and it's one of those pieces that feels just as strange and pointed today as it did when it first appeared.

Ionesco wrote Rhinoceros as a reaction to the fascism, conformity, and senseless violence he saw around him during World War II. He fled Romania in 1938 as more of his acquaintances joined the fascist Iron Guard, and that experience—watching people around him succumb to a collective madness—is exactly what the play is about. It premiered in Paris in 1960, directed by and starring Jean-Louis Barrault, and was staged later that year at London's Royal Court, directed by Orson Welles and starring Laurence Olivier. It remains the most popular work of the Romanian-French playwright.

For Cooper, this one is personal. She first fell in love with the play as a student at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and she's staged it twice before, in 2003 and 2017. George Parker and Kyle Sturdivant are reprising their roles from that 2017 production, and a review from September 22 called their performances iconic. They're joined by Noel Bowers, Karina Pal Montaño-Bowers, Sara Jo Dunstan, Jovan Jackson, Mara McGhee, Jenna Morris Miller, Rebecca Randall, and Abraham Zapata.

It's a long show—two hours and 45 minutes with one intermission—so you'll want to settle in. Performances run Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM, and Sundays at 2:30 PM, with a special Monday Industry Night on October 5 at 7:30 PM. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, with $40 suggested. You can find it at MATCH, 3400 Main Street in Midtown.