The Rhinos

A perfectly ordinary day in a perfectly ordinary city—but suddenly a rhinoceros races through the streets. A short while later, a second rhinoceros storms past, and the transformation begins:

Residents start to feel unwell; their skin hardens, their voices grow hoarse until they can only gasp for breath. Veins swell, body temperatures skyrocket, and eventually they themselves become rhinoceroses, breaking through walls, shaking houses to their foundations, and trampling everything in their path. Where will this transformation lead?

In “The Rhinoceroses,” based on Eugène Ionesco and choreographed by URSina Tossi, six performers encounter characters and settings from the play, slipping into and out of roles—layer by layer, like different skins.

It is about fascism and what takes hold of the body when fascism makes itself at home within it: anger, fear, and grief. It is about the pleasure that can lie in destruction, but also about the desire to hold hands and resist the transformation.

A powerful dance piece with integrated artistic audio description for people with and without visual impairments, which transports the audience into a state where they can feel the trampling and panting of the rhinos.