Thick Skins

Class 2b has a new pupil that doesn’t seem to fit in very well with everyone else. Lou can’t chew chewing gum, leggings don’t suit him and he always gets his legs caught up in the elastic when playing Chinese jump rope. That’s because Lou is a rhino. And try as he might, he can’t seem to fit in and no one wants to play with him. Instead, everyone calls him names and laughs at him. The other kids think that being a rhino isn’t normal, and their parents agree. Come to think of it, aren’t rhinos dangerous? Shouldn’t they all be in zoos? But maybe the kids can find a way for everyone to get along...

«In an impressive way the play deconstructs the mechanisms behind bullying and marginalisation ... and shows in its absorbing final scenes not only how to find yourself and deal with this kind of situation but also that all the other school kids aren’t normal, either, that they are all very different animals, each one a wilful individual, and that there’s no such thing as ‘normal’.» (Paul Brodowsky in his address at the Mülheimer Children’s Theatre Award 2017)