★★★★“A triumph of design… one of this show's pleasures lies in the inventiveness of the theatrical world it creates… Five stars to Dann Barber's costume, inspired by a miscellany of French fashions, artistic movements and kitsch. It's full of glorious visual comedy and surreal surprises, as if Magritte were dreaming of the Ancièn Regime in some op shop in the sky. And it becomes a crucial part of the absurdist action, too.

You'll never forget the scene in which Berenger's perfectionist mate Jean (James Cerché) transmogrifies into a rhino onstage. Or a housewife (Belinda Andrson-Hunt) indulging performative trauma over a (disgusting) dead cat.

Or the crocheted lust of Mrs. Boeuf (Annabelle Tudor) before she finds insta-love with her newly rhinocified husband. Or the comically dehumanising dimensions of Berenger's boss (Alexandra Aldrich) as he barks pointless orders in a workplace while the world runs amok."

THE AGE, Cameron Woodhead

October 31, 2024