Rhinoceros
Opens Friday: A poster animal for conservation, the rhinoceros is a charismatic creature of lethal strength and strong determination but poor vision. It is also endangered. Those characteristics are ones that Franco-Romanian writer Eugene Ionesco tapped for his 1959 play of the same name. Ionesco, an absurdist, avant-garde playwright, wrote "Rhinoceros" as a way to talk about the rise of fascism in postwar Europe. In the one-act play, people of a town that is in the grips of mad hysteria gradually turn into the horned, odd-toed ungulates. This production for 7th House Theater, a company known for infusing music in its stripped-down shows, is being staged in an alternative space by Lauren Keating, associate producer at the Guthrie. Her youthful cast includes Cat Brindisi, Kiara Jackson, Ashley Rose Montondo, Grant Sorenson and mezzo-soprano Anna Hashizume. (10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m. Sun.-Mon. & Thu. Ends Jan. 29. A Mill Artist Lofts, 315 SE. Main St., Mpls. $15. brownpapertickets.com.)
Rohan Preston
