In times of heightened social and political schism, and as we inch closer to the US election, the sight of a society spiralling into mass hysteria feels uncannily, perhaps painfully, familiar.

Romanian French absurdist Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinocéros, in a fresh adaptation by Zinnie Harris, fuses this tension with mutual destruction, silliness, and most important, rhinoceroses (or is it rhinoceri?).

It’s been brought to life at Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs by Spinning Plates Co., the team behind The Crocodile, and directed by Cassandra Fumi.

In Fumi’s world, the characters are farcical, almost caricatured, bringing to mind the surrealism of her previous work like The Crocodile. Harris’s script keeps the dialogue rapid-fire, sometimes nonsensical and comically repetitive, with a contemporary twist.

Paired with Dann Barber’s costumes – complete with headgear, MacDonald’s wrappers, top hats, and the revitalised rhino suit – the production firmly establishes that the characters are, in many ways, fantastical from the start.

Cait Spiker & James Cerche in Rhinoceros. Photo © Darren Gill

These eccentric, squabbling inhabitants live in a quaint village on the edge of collective madness, primed for the arrival of a new pandemic. Don’t worry; it’s not COVID-19 – it’s “rhinoceritis,” a highly...