Direction Dominic Cooke
In a new translation by Martin Crimp
21 September – 15 December
Press Night Thursday 27 September
RHINOCEROS will open in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court on 27 September 2007, as part of the theatre’s Autumn International Season, directed by the Royal Court’s Artistic Director Dominic Cooke.
Full cast: Zawe Ashton, Michael Begley, Jasper Britton, Paul Chahidi, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacqueline Defferary, David Hinton, Lloyd Hutchinson, Claire Prempeh, Alwyne Taylor, Graham Turner.
The production will be designed by Anthony Ward, with lighting by Johanna Town and sound by Ian Dickinson. Full cast and creative team to be announced.
When a rhinoceros charges across the town square one Sunday afternoon, Berenger thinks nothing of it. Soon, however, rhinoceroses are popping up everywhere and Berenger’s whole world is under threat. What will it take for him to stand up to the increasing menace of rhinocerisation?
Ionesco’s iconic satire on apathy and conformity is given its first major UK revival since its Royal Court premiere in 1960, which was directed by Orson Welles, starring Laurence Olivier.
Rhinoceros will be performed in repertoire with Max Frisch’s The Arsonists, which is directed by Royal Court Associate Director Ramin Gray, and features the same cast.
A full performance schedule is available on request.
Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for a BAFTA in 2005, playing the scientist Stephen Hawking in the BBC television drama Hawking. Since then his film work has included Starter for Ten (dir. Tom Vaughan) and Amazing Grace (dir. Michael Apted). He has various projects scheduled for release, playing alongside Keira Knightley and James McAvoy in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement (dir. Joe Wright) and opposite Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl (dir. Justin Chadwick). His upcoming television work includes leads in Stuart: A Life Backwards (Neal Street Productions) and The Last Enemy (BBC TV). Benedict is no stranger to the British stage, having appeared in Lady From The Sea, Hedda Gabler and Period of Adjustment (all Almeida), following an extended spell with the New Shakespeare Company.
Dominic Cooke’s first play after taking up his post as Artistic Director in January 2007 was The Pain and The Itch, currently playing in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. As Associate Director at the RSC, he directed Pericles, A Winter’s Tale, The Crucible (winner of two Olivier awards, for Best Revival and Best Director) and The Malcontent. Dominic’s credits as Associate Director at the Royal Court include Identical Twins, This Is A Chair (co-directed with Ian Rickson), The People Are Friendly, Plasticine, F***ing Games, Redundant, Spinning Into Butter, Fireface and Other People.
Eugène Ionesco (1909 – 1994) was born in Slatina, Romania. His plays include The Bald Soprano, Rhinoceros, The Chairs, Jack or The Submission, The Lesson, The Killer, Exit the King, Macbett and Journeys Among the Dead. His awards include the Tours Festival Prize for film, 1959; Prix Italia, 1963; Society of Authors theatre prize, 1966; Grand Prix National for theatre, 1969; Monaco Grand Prix, 1969; Austrian State Prize for European Literature, 1970; Jerusalem Prize, 1973; and honorary doctorates from New York University and the universities of Louvain (France), Warwick (England), and Tel Aviv (Israel). He was elected into the Académie Française in 1970.
Martin Crimp is a British playwright and former Royal Court Writer in Residence. His innovative play Attempts on Her Life was first performed at the Royal Court in 1997 and has since been translated into twenty languages. His other plays for the Royal Court include: Advice to Iraqi Women, Face to the Wall, The Country, The Treatment and No One Sees the Video. As a translator, Crimp has interpreted Ionesco’s The Chairs and Jean Genet’s The Maids, as well as works by Marivaux and Chekhov.
