Part theatre and part experiment, White Rabbit Red Rabbit puts both its performer and its audience in the hands of a script neither has encountered before.
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What’s it about?
Written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, White Rabbit Red Rabbit was created when he was unable to leave Iran and therefore couldn't travel with his own work. Instead, the script itself travelled.
The performer receives the text for the first time on stage and follows its instructions alongside the audience. What begins with a deceptively playful sense of unpredictability gradually becomes an exploration of obedience, control, choice and the relationship between writer, performer and audience.
What we loved
I had heard plenty about White Rabbit Red Rabbit before finally seeing it, but had deliberately avoided finding out too much. I enjoy going into a production without knowing exactly what to expect, making up my mind about it in the moment. For this particular play, that turns out to be exactly the right approach.
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit has taken up a Monday-night residency at the Duchess Theatre, with a different actor stepping onto the stage each week to encounter the script for the first time.
Tonight, that actor was David Harewood — confident, charismatic and a little understandably nervous. At the beginning of the evening, he was handed a sealed envelope containing the script by the show’s producer. He opened it, began reading and we were away.
There is no director guiding the performance, and virtually no set: a chair, a small table and a little ladder are essentially all Harewood has to work with. The auditorium lights remain up throughout, removing the usual divide between audience and performer and reinforcing the sense that we are all participants in whatever is about to happen.
And there is a lot of participation — considerably more than I had expected. Sitting in the second row, I was suddenly rather grateful not to be in the first, where a number of the evening’s willing — and perhaps not-so-willing — volunteers were found. Audience members are brought onto the stage, given instructions and become part of the mechanics of the piece.
For me, these sections were less compelling. They are fundamental to what Soleimanpour is exploring, but this is also where White Rabbit Red Rabbit begins to feel less like a conventional play and more like a social experiment. We aren't simply watching a story unfold; we're watching how people respond to instructions, authority, uncertainty and each other.
The production was at its strongest when Harewood was alone with the words. As he moved deeper into the monologues and the story of the playwright himself, the evening became much more absorbing. It is fascinating to watch an experienced actor encounter a text for the first time and immediately begin making choices — finding rhythms, humour and meaning without rehearsal or preparation. Harewood demonstrated exactly what a great actor can do: take words sitting cold on a page and make them feel alive.
That is perhaps the most intriguing thing about White Rabbit Red Rabbit. The script may remain the constant, but the production can never really be the same twice. Change the actor, change the audience, change the volunteers and you inevitably change the evening.
Anything we’d change?
The extensive audience participation won't appeal to everyone. While it is central to the concept, I found the moments involving audience members on stage less engaging than Harewood's solo sections. At those points the theatrical momentum can give way to the mechanics of the experiment.
Who would enjoy it?
Anyone interested in experimental theatre, and the chance to see your favourite actor in a very different production. And if you prefer observing audience participation rather than actually doing it, perhaps don't sit in the front row.
Verdict
White Rabbit Red Rabbit is an unusual and thought-provoking theatrical experiment, with the unpredictability of a new performer each week built into its DNA. Not every element worked equally well for me, but watching David Harewood encounter the words for the first time — and bring them vividly to life — made this an interesting night at the theatre.
Book at https://tickets.stagedtheatre.co.uk/play/white-rabbit-red-rabbit-tickets