White Rabbit Red Rabbit reviewed by James Haddrell
On and around March 13 every year, in what has become an international movement, theatres all around the world present Iranian playwright and theatre-maker Nassim Soleimanpour’s play White Rabbit Red Rabbit – and this year Greenwich Theatre is set to get involved.
The story behind this play is highly unusual.
While it is standard for a playwright to turn up at the various openings of their plays, when White Rabbit Red Rabbit originally premiered at the Edinburgh and Summerworks festivals in 2011, Soleimanpour was unable to attend.
However, he never expected to be there.
Forbidden from traveling outside of his native Iran, Soleimanpour had specifically written the play to travel the world in his place.
What followed took the theatre world by storm.
By the time Nassim was permitted to travel for the first time in early 2013, his play had been performed more than 1,000 times in 20 languages.
That number has now reached 30 different languages with the performance tally reaching 3,000.
Apart from its award-winning pedigree and global reputation, the reason that producers around the world are so ready to bring the show to the stage is the unique concept that drives it.
Described as “an audacious theatrical experiment and a potent reminder of the transgressive and transformative power of theatre”, the play can take place in any venue of any scale with any facilities.
It has no rehearsals, no director, and a different actor performing it each night.
When they arrive on stage, with no preparation and no foreknowledge of the contents, the actor finds a script waiting in a sealed envelope.
They open it and read and so the play begins.
Stumbling upon the personal and profound, the limits of liberty and ultimately where theatre can take you, the play has been performed by some of the biggest names in theatre and film, including Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, John Hurt, Juliet Stevenson, Stephen Fry, Sinead Cusack, Marcus Brigstocke and Ken Loach.
At Greenwich Theatre, we are delighted to be presenting five performances of White Rabbit Red Rabbit with a fantastic line-up of familiar faces tackling the play.
Where The Heart Is star Kerrie Taylor returns to Greenwich after her appearance in our Caryl Churchill collection Bad Nights And Odd Days, while EastEnders favourite Nitin Ganatra makes his Greenwich debut.
Phil Sealey returns just months after joining the Greenwich Panto family as Little Joan last Christmas, with stand-up comedian and mental health campaigner Juliette Burton also heading back to Greenwich for the event.
This really is a unique challenge for the actors involved. Neither improvisation nor a rehearsed play, it is unlikely that any of them will have done anything like this before.
It is also a unique experience for an audience, sharing in an actor’s discovery, watching an actor confronting one of the most challenging moments in their career, and knowing that no two performances will ever be the same.
I can’t wait to see what people make of it.
Picture: Nitin Ganatra Picture: Craig Topham