“In this show, the rhino can be anything – an imaginary image, an idea that someone defends. We don’t see what it is, we don’t know what he looks like, but everyone is talking about it,” explains T. Velichko.
“The genre of the show is an absurd comedy. And the key word is ‘absurd’, because you can’t find any regularity to cling to. But I can say that this show is very relevant. “And everything else is subordinate to it. Some don’t believe in the idea of getting vaccinated, while others believe it will save the world.”
A play by Eugene Jonesco Rhinoceros written more than 60 years ago. The story is about a small French province where rumors of a rhinoceros attack have spread. But as long as it doesn’t affect anyone personally, no one seems to know. Some claim that turning into a rhino is a fake message, others prefer not to get out of the house just so that nothing happens. One image passes through this nightmare – T. Velelko’s depiction in Berange. At the beginning of the show, he is an apathetic alcoholic who is not interested in anything going on around what his friends are doing with himself. But at the end of the show, he is ready to save the world and remain the last thinking person on this earth.
The actor says that the form of the show is very unusual: the first act is like a clown, in the second the characters live in a trapped environment with bent backs, tense muscles, strange movements. “But in the third act we are in space and soaring in the air. In our thoughts as well,” reveals T. Velichko. The performance was staged at the Daile Theater by a creative team from Hungary directed by Ildiko Gāšpārs. “It’s a new push, another energy, thinking and scope in creating the show,” describes T. Velichko. The very beginning was unusual, because if the content of the play is usually understood and only then the search for form follows, this time the form was first.
The premiere at the theater was played in March only for his own. Well, half a year has passed, and – again the premiere. “The show will not change its form, but the world has changed in six months, because what we are talking about has become even more relevant,” T. Velicko emphasizes. “Although the background of the show is tragic, everything is done easily, as if playing. The director’s initial setting that it should be played easily, humorously, without stagnation, delighted everyone.” The actor quotes his character in the finale of the show: “A person who wants to maintain his individuality always comes to a bad end.” And comments: “In the show, I saved myself, didn’t let my thoughts cling to the advice of others. I laughed – what did I fight for if it destroyed me ?!”
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