Opening Tonight: RHINOCEROS at IWU

Eugène Ionesco was really big in the 70s, when I came of age. My junior high theater teacher assigned two of his plays (The Lesson and The Bald Soprano) for a whole semester's worth of class work. I seem to recall Ionesco in my French textbook, including an image of a nose shaped like a circular stair. And I saw (and fell in love with) Rhinoceros when another high school used it for its contest play. There was no actual rhinoceros in that one, just puffs of dust as they supposedly ran by and physical work by the actors whose characters turned into them. The 1974 movie starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, who'd played the same role in the 1961 Broadway production, also eschewed real rhinoceroses in favor of Mostel chewing the scenery. But the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis built immense rubbery rhino outfits for their production in the 80s. And that, too, worked like a charm. Or a rhinoceros.

Whether Illinois Wesleyan University is giving their prop and costume people a rhino-sized workout remains to be seem. But their own Rhinoceros, that timely parable about regular people inexplicably embracing the beasts inside (and outside) to go along with the crowd, opens tonight at 8 pm at the Jerome Mirza Theatre at McPherson Hall on the IWU campus.

Here's how IWU's press materials describe their take on Rhinoceros:

The sublime is confused with the ridiculous in this savage commentary on the human condition. A small town is besieged by one roaring citizen who finds himself turning into a rhinoceros and who proceeds to trample on the social order. As with any "disease," more citizens become infected. "An allegory for our times." - The New York Times "It’s satirical humor, combined with its provocative theme and surprisingly moving ending, results in an evening that is strange, disturbing and arresting." - New York Post

The IWU Rhinoceros stars Chris Woodley as Berenger, a listless young man who is nonetheless a holdout from rhinomania; Will Mueller as Jean, his more punctilious friend; and Maya McHowan as Daisy, the woman Berenger loves. Brooke Emmerich, Holden Ginn, Melissa Iheakam, Paola Lehman, Jean Salgado, Juna Shai, Megan Spencer, Cami Tokowitz, Tuxford Turner, Travis Ulrich, Robert Wilson and Libby Zabit will make up the rest of the rhino-ravaged town.

Rhinoceros runs from February 27 to March 4, with performances at 8 pm Tuesday through Saturday and a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday. You can order tickets online here or call the box office at 309-556-3232.

HAMLET at IWU Opening Tomorrow

Let Hercules himself do what he may, 
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

Hamlet, the play in which those lines appear, has enjoyed more than one day since Shakespeare wrote it as the 16th century was turning into the 17th. It is Shakespeare's longest play, one of his most frequently performed plays, and has spawned so many quotes and aphorisms, you can't fit them all on one T-shirt. "The Conscience of the King" is the title of a Star Trek episode, while "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" (and a whole lot more) showed up on a musical episode of Gilligan's Island.

From Stanislavski to Spongebob, from Richard Burbage to Benedict Cumberbatch, Hamlet has staying power.

The newest Hamlet in central Illinois opens tomorrow night in the Jerome Mirza Theatre in McPherson Hall at Illinois Wesleyan University. The poster for director Christopher Connelly's production at IWU has a political, even war-minded edge, reminding us that Hamlet is, after all, a prince who needs to consider what's right for his country as well as his family. In an IWU press piece written by Emily Phelps, Connelly says, "The play is a labyrinth Hamlet wanders in to avoid actually having to accept his responsibility not only for his murdered father and his own weakness of inaction, but also for the increasing obligation to his country."

Senior Steven Czajkowski leads Connelly's cast as the melancholy Dane, joined by Maggie Pratchett as Ophelia, Hamlet's love interest; Alexa Eldridge as his mother, Gertrude; Bucky Emmerling II as Claudius, the scheming uncle who has usurped Hamlet's father as king and as husband to Gertrude; Eli Miller as Hamlet's loyal friend Horatio; Nick Giambrone as Polonius, Ophelia's father and an adviser to the court; Danny Adams as Ophelia's brother Laertes; and Maggie Sperger and Carlos Medina as old school chums Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Dean Carlson, Cathy Colburn, Forrest Loeffler, Will Mueller, Evan Rumler, Anna Sciaccotta, Yuka Sekine, Alec Sutton and Tuxford Turner round out the ensemble.

Hamlet opens tomorrow night at 8 pm, followed by evening performances through Saturday the 27th and a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, February 28th. Tickets are $10 for Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and $12 for Friday and Saturday. Wednesday night's performance is offered free of charge. If you are interested in reserving tickets, you may contact the McPherson box office at 309-556-3232 or click on the Buy Tickets Now link on this page.