The highly anticipated play Rhinoceros, directed by associate professor Parjad Sharifi, will be performed March 14 – 23 . This will be the second production of UFV Theatre’s 2023-2024 season, and it will challenge audiences to consider the state of the world and issues regarding conformism and complacency.

Presented by the UFV SOCA acting and production classes, Rhinoceros is a humorous and absurdist masterwork by Eugène Ionesco, written in 1959. The play comments on the dangers of conformity and acts as a metaphor to depict the rise of fascism and totalitarian ideologies. It challenges audiences to ask critical existential questions about human will and responsibility in today’s global crisis.

Set in a small French town, the play centers around the character Berenger, an everyman figure who is initially presented as a slacker and outsider. As the play progresses, the town is gradually taken over by rhinoceroses. Berenger finds himself increasingly isolated and powerless as he watches his friends and fellow citizens succumb to a bizarre transformation.

Sharifi’s main focus in directing this production was collaboration between students.

“Theatre is a collaborative art,” says Sharifi. “You have to be responsible and collaborate with your teammates to seamlessly put together the various elements of a theatre production. With this play, we’re creating a collage full of various pieces that intertwine into a larger message, and so we’re working together to make sure we’re on the same page stylistically.”

Sharifi chose the absurdist piece to better showcase the students’ strengths.

“It’s a big play, complicated, and not straightforward or realistic like others. We have a brilliant production team who’s able to help us with projection mapping ads and AI images in the background, playing clips from documentaries and movies, on top of our lighting and set design. Absurdist theatre is different from other streams or styles: you must learn how to study the characters, embody them, frame them, how to analyze a script like this and understand it. The actors learned how to play with absurdist characters without goals, full of paradoxes and conflicts.”

The student cast features Kyle Pagulyan, Owen Occleshaw, Jessica Blanchard, Marc Cretien, Chloe Loewen, Alvin Swarup, Liam Troan, Harshit Sharma, Grae Markiw, Abbye Mozsar, Eden Verster, Braydan Dades, Abdullah Hamid, and Beatrice Frenette.

The student design team includes Hayley Bamford (set designer), Taya Viger (props designer/builder), Doris Huang (lighting designer), Franco Ruiz de Castilla (projection designer), Vikash Gill (sound designer), Sterling Kai Pollock (costume designer), and CJ Rafter (hair and makeup designer). They are supported by production crew members Christopher Benedicto (stage manager), Samerpreet Singh (ASM), Asha Thapa (assistant costume designer), Brooklyn Doornbos (running crew/dresser), Adam Nelson (sound assistant/board operator), Prabhnoor Singh (lighting assistant/board operator).

Students are also mentored by UFV production class instructor and technical coordinator Jared Raschke, wardrobe manager Heather Robertson, and production manager Giuseppe Condello.

Performances will be held in the Performance Studio, Building D, 105, Abbotsford Campus, University of the Fraser Valley, 33844 King Road.

Cost: $5 for students, $10 for the public.

Opening night: Thursday, March 14 at 7:00 pm.

Regular performances:

Friday, March 15 at 7:00 pm

Saturday, March 16 at 2:00 pm

Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 pm

Friday, March 22 at 7:00 pm

Saturday, March 23 at 2:00 pm

Seat reservations are available on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/rhinoceros-tickets-789273487247?aff=erelexpmlt

Please be advised that early reservations via Eventbrite are encouraged as seating will be extremely limited. All bookings can be made through Eventbrite and seat registration ends 2 hours before the performance start times. Performances will be held in the Performance Studio, Building D, 105, Abbotsford Campus, University of the Fraser Valley, 33844 King Road.

Contact soca@ufv.ca for inquiries.

Follow the UFV School of Creative Arts @ufvsoca on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

About the 2023-2024 Season of Theatre at UFV 

Directors’ Showcase 2024

April 2024

The Directors’ Showcase is the final project presented by UFV Theatre’s fourth-year Directing Theatre class and is a chance for students to apply everything they have learned in the course. The shows being presented this year are:

• Trifles by Susan Glaspell (directed by Brian Cahill)
• Murder by Midnight by Jeff Goode (directed by Sarah Byers)
• Twitch by Stephen Gregg (directed by Sterling Kai Pollock)
• The Wedding Story by Julianne Homokay (directed by Doris Huang)
• Bringing Up Lester by Stephen Bittrich (directed by Taya Viger)
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Bren McPhee (directed by Bren McPhee)

For more information about UFV Theatre productions visit  https://ufv.ca/plays/