Spooky Action at a Distance — John W. Bateman — Rhino Fest 2026
In self-defense against the infestation of humans, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire thawed out the tundra. After releasing ancient bacteria and viruses that wiped out humanity, the four elements find themselves… in anger management? Sometimes, actions have consequences that exceed the problem. Written and directed by John W. Bateman.
John W. Bateman writes and looks for stories from the Deep South. His work has appeared in places like The Chicago Tribune, Salvation South, The New Southern Fugitives, Electric Literature, Facing South, The Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly, and on the silver screen. He has a not-so-secret addiction to glitter and, contrary to his southern roots, does NOT like sweet tea. His first novel, Who Killed Buster Sparkle? (Unsolicited Press) was a 2020 Nominee in Fiction by the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters and recipient of the 2019 Screencraft Cinematic Book Award. John received his MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a 2023 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow. He was a 2023-24 Watson Brown Fellow in the Southern Studies Fellowship in Arts & Letters in Spartanburg, SC.
Although he misses his unicorn lumberjack shack, John is living somewhere near the third star to the left, endeavoring to be a better human than the year before.
Dates: Saturday, October 3 at 9:00
Sunday, October 4 at 7:00
Saturday, October 10 at 7:00
Sunday, October 11 at 7:00
Venue: The Labyrinth Club, 3658 N. Pulaski
Tickets: All Rhino Fest tickets are offered at sliding scale prices in an effort to make theater more accessible to more people in our communities. We say "pay what you can" and we mean it. Rhino Fest is co-produced by the Curious Theatre Branch and the performance venues. Additional donations are always welcome.
About the venue: The Labyrinth Club is located at 3658 N Pulaski Ave, just north of Addison in the Irving Park neighborhood. Street parking is usually possible nearby. The venue is 0.5 miles south of the Irving Park Blue Line station, and 0.2 miles west of the Addison Blue Line station. Labyrinth Arts is a first-floor space with an accessible entrance, no stairs, and one single-stall restroom; the restroom doorway is slightly smaller than ADA standard, and may be difficult for some wheelchairs to navigate.
Note: Labyrinth is structured as a private club rather than a public venue. Visitors will be asked to sign a guestbook on entering, which confers a 24-hour membership at the club. There is no extra fee due at the time of ticket purchase or on arrival. For more information: https://www.instagram.com/labyrinthartsperformance/
About Rhino Fest: The event that became the Rhinoceros Theater Festival began in 1988 as an offshoot of the Bucktown Arts Fest, and in its first year featured just two days of performances, including work by Jenny Magnus and Beau O'Reilly. When the event's founder moved away from Chicago in 1990, he asked a ragtag group of local artists (including Beau O'Reilly and Theatre of the Reconstruction’s Scott Turner) to keep the festival going, and the Rhino Fest was born. The Curious Theatre Branch went on to produce the Rhino across many neighborhoods and venues over the years, with events variously taking place in Wicker Park/Bucktown, Rogers Park, Andersonville and Avondale; at spaces including the Lunar Cabaret and Full Moon Café, the Neo-Futurarium, the Society for New Things, The Garage, The Firehouse, Remains Theatre, and Prop Thtr. In the mid-2000s, Rhino Fest settled at Prop Thtr in Avondale as its long-term base, and Prop and Curious co-produced the festival among a shifting group of curators for many years. Following the closure of Prop's Elston Avenue space in 2020 and a year off during the height of the pandemic, Rhino Fest is once more itinerant, currently producing more than 30 shows at The Labyrinth Club, Chicago Danztheater, and Chicago Dramatists.
Location
The Labyrinth Club, 60641