If you want to grab one of the few remaining tickets left for this show you should ignore my rating and go along with an open mind. Maybe don’t read this review either. Of course I will avoid spoilers but it is probably better to know as little as possible. Still here? OK, I’ll explain. White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is a play in an envelope. Each night a new actor arrives onstage. The actor has never seen the script before. On my night it was Ghosts star, Mathew Baynton (pictured in theatre). But maybe you’ll catch Minnie Driver or Michael Sheen. Whoever they are, they must open the envelope and read.
Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour wrote the script 14 years ago and it was first performed around the time of the Arab Spring. There are some references to Iran which feel a bit different now - although similar themes are in play in our current moment of history. The play is really a moral fable which raises interesting questions like: how much of life is scripted for us by others or by our context? How much choice do we really have about how to live and therefore how to die? When asked to do things we may not want to do, how far will our obedience go? And yes - that last question does imply that there will be audience participation and plenty of it.
Claps to the long list of great actors who take on this challenge. And to the willing victims from the audience too. On the night I went, it felt like everyone was eager to see an intimate acting masterclass. Baynton is a fantastic light comic actor and he made it funny. I can’t tell you exactly how, but his ostrich impression is banging. Other actors might be more grave, get into the tragicomic vein. There’s no director but if anyone from the production team is reading this, then how about giving the actor more help from the lighting? The performer is super-exposed in every way, on a three-sided stage under lights that never dim, that give them nowhere to lurk or to gather a mystery and menace. As well as laughter, there are shadows in the play. I’d like to have seen more of them.
