Hollywood comes to Cambridge this summer to star in “Rhinoceros” at the American Repertory Theater: The cast announced Wednesday includes Paul Giamatti as Jean, Tatiana Maslany as Daisy and John Turturro as Bérenger. Each has a list of credits in movies and television nearly too long to recount.
Eugène Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” begins the theater’s 47th and final Cambridge season Aug. 12, and is the final production Tony-winning artistic director Diane Paulus directs at the Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square before the A.R.T.’s move to Allston.
Since its premiere in 1959, “Rhinoceros” has been understood as a postwar fable about conformity and fascism, as Bérenger, a simple man, watches everyone around him in his small French hometown turn into crude, rampaging rhinoceroses. A film of the play released in 1973 starred Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Karen Black.
In this version of “Rhinoceros,” using an adaptation from the French by Derek Prouse, Turturro will be the character played by Wilder – an update of the besieged schlub; Maslany takes on the Black role; and Giamatti might channel a bit of Mostel as he turns into a rhinoceros in front of Bérenger and the audience.
This won’t be the first time Giamatti has played a rhino: In “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” in 2014, he played the Marvel comics supervillain Rhino.
Giamatti – currently in Season 7 of Netflix’s “Black Mirror” and soon starring opposite Julianne Moore in Jesse Eisenberg’s feature film “No One Cares” and Tom McCarthy’s “The Statement” opposite Paul Rudd – was last in town filming “The Holdovers” (2023), the Alexander Payne dramedy with scenes at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square.
Turturro has film credits from “Do the Right Thing” to a run of Coen brothers films – “Barton Fink,” “The Big Lebowski” and “Miller’s Crossing” – and has been on television’s “Severance.” He is next in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” a crime thriller directed by Noah Segan, and will star in Tom McCarthy’s upcoming film.
Maslany is an Emmy-winning actor known for “Orphan Black,” “She-Hulk” and “Perry Mason” who is coming to Apple TV for “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” and is on the big screen with Turturro in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
“It is a dream to have this opportunity to create this production with John, Paul and Tatiana,” Paulus said. “They are extraordinary actors who all share a passion for bringing this timely play to our audiences.”
American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Mainstage, 64 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
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