Cavemen, Couples and Conspiracies: The Rhinoceros Collective at Toronto Fringe

With seven performances lined up for the crew across the 11 day festival, The Rhinoceros Collective is set to debut at Toronto Fringe.

The cast members during rehearsals for The Rhinoceros Collective alongside the co-writer Seamus Tokol. The play brings to audiences an hour of covering the absurdities of human behaviour. Photo By: (Vyusti Shroff // The Underground)

The Fringe Festival, Ontario’s largest showcase of theatrical talent, returned to Toronto for its 37th edition this July. The grassroots charitable organization ran 106 shows across 22 stages, where thousands of people poured in to witness a fresh lineup of stories this year.

The Fringe festival aims to serve as “the starting place of stories, creativity, risks and dreams”  and Seamus Tokol achieves just that in his sketch comedy revue, The Rhinoceros Collective which brings to audiences an hour of covering the absurdities of human behaviour through completely unique but equally intriguing lenses. 

Starting off with a humorous take at prehistoric life, Tookol wittily maneuvers into the complexities of modern dating and its striking resemblance to intense chess games before ending with how the inside of the Illuminati - an elite secret society - would  look like.

In the director's words that stand true on watching the show, “that’s all the context you need.” 

Leading up to the opening day, the crew spent countless hours trying to perfect every single caveman laugh and the Illuminati bling at the Luella Massey Theatre 

Actors in the middle of a chess scene depicted in the show, each ’move’ played would go on to be intensely judged by a panel of commentators who showered both fiery criticism and dramatic praise for the players. Photo By: (Anahadhbir Singh // The Underground)

“It was just so funny to think about cavemen talking the way we do today,” shares Spencer Pearson, formerly a performer at the Disney cruise and the co-writer  for The Rhinoceros Collective. 

“We ended up with 7 hours of pure cavemen comedy the first time we sat down to write,” adds Pearson.

With seven performances lined up for the crew across the 11 day festival, actors had to make sure they bring the same experience to excited audiences who expect nothing but perfection when they pour into the Fringe venues.

“I always get super nervous before getting into shows, but there’s always this moment where the panic settles down and we all come together feeling confident in all the work we’ve put in. Then, there is just sheer excitement to bring our characters to audiences,” said Chelsea Bowler, when asked about emotions heading into the opening day as an actor.

And finally the stage was set, the steady footsteps settled down and muffled whispers exchanged their excitement as The Rhinoceros collective kicked off with  a humorous trip to the Stone Age.

Contrary to popular belief, the challenges of our beloved ancestors weren’t just sabre-toothed tigers and no mobile phones! 

People simply running out of things to do, trying to look at the sun to guess when to get to school and a spin the stone wheel game show was the innovative intersection of cavemen and modern day life.

The play depicts out of the box ideas put together by some remarkable scriptwriting and acting performances, truly reiterating the essence of Fringe and making for a memorable watch. Photo By: (Anahadhbir Singh // The Underground)

As a history teacher desperately tried to make up events worth teaching and the unlabelled rock wheel would ‘disappointingly’ always land on the same spot the audience was enjoying every moment of the caveman chaos.

Some rapid moving around of props followed which marked the start of Chess, where romantic dates now featured chess boards between two people competing to woo the other, where every sentence exchanged is a maneuver on the chess board. 

Each ’move’ played would go on to be intensely judged by a panel of commentators who showered both fiery criticism and dramatic praise for the players — perfectly encapsulating the contemporary dating world, which comes with the challenges of peer pressure and easy to screw up dates.

Ever wondered what goes on in an Illuminati meeting? Well, this was probably the closest one would come to finding out, unless you were to become a billionaire and of course, if the Illuminati even exists. 

Celebrities trying their best to fight their way into meetings, being ridiculed for not being popular enough and desperate attempts to extort money for raising funds to ‘control the world’ was just the perfect dose of comedy and a playful nudge at the concept of elite societies. 

As everyone walked out with a different interpretation of the underlying messages behind what they had just witnessed, one feeling was inarguably shared, and that was one of being completely immersed in something that took away from what audiences are used to seeing. 

The play depicts out of the box ideas put together by some remarkable scriptwriting and acting performances, truly reiterating the essence of Fringe and making for a memorable watch.