The Seeing Place Theater is presenting Eugène Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS, above, in repertory with Marsha Norman’s GETTING OUT at the Lynn Redgrave Theater
The Seeing Place @ the Lynn Redgrave Theater
45 Bleecker St. at Lafayette St.
Through August 7, $15
www.seeingplacetheater.com
The actor-driven Seeing Place Theater, whose name is the English translation of the Greek word theatron, continues its presentation of two very different works through this weekend as part of its “But Who Am I, Really” season. The company’s seventh season consists of Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman’s Louisville-set debut play, 1978’s Getting Out, and Romanian-French absurdist Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 classic, Rhinoceros. The former follows a Kentucky woman trying to put her life back together after being released from prison, while the latter deals with a French villager recovering from a hangover as rhinos start stampeding all around him. Getting Out is directed by TSP founding managing director Erin Cronican, who also stars as Arlene, while Rhinoceros is directed by TSP founding artistic director Brandon Walker, who plays Berenger. “The more we’ve explored these plays as a pair the more we’ve noticed the profound amount of conformity society demands of us in order to keep us ‘civilized,’” Walker explained in a statement. “In both plays our central protagonist is faced with a fateful opportunity to step into a new reality, but who really makes this choice — the individual or society?” TSP has previously staged productions of such works as Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, Johnna Adams’s Gidion’s Knot, Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms, and Harold Pinter’s The Lover.