Rhinoceros - TNT

Rhinoceroses take over the town in Romanian-born French playwright Eugene Ionesco's dark absurdist comedy which premiered in 1959. What begins with the sighting of a single animal on the rampage soon becomes a mass stampede as, one by one, friends and colleagues morph into horned pachyderms. Supposedly written in response to the rise of Fascism in the country of his birth, the light philosophical humour of the opening scene quickly gives way to something more alarming as an innocent cat becomes the first bloody victim of the invasion. Benedict Cumberbatch gives a suitably dishevelled performance as Ionesco's everyman figure, Berenger, who hasn't the willpower to stay off the booze but somehow musters the requisite self-respect to resist the encroaching ideological conformity. And Jasper Britton's fastidious Jean makes a disturbing transformation from dapper man to bellowing beast. But despite the witty translation, first-rate prosthetics and well-paced production, Ionesco takes longer than he needs to get his message across.
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Sq, SW1 (020-7565 5000). £25-£10. In rep till December 15