Review: WHITE RABBIT, RED RABBIT at Film Center Oktyabr (New European Theatre Festival) - A Thrilling Journey Through The Story

The work of Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour was produced as a part of a New European Theatre Festival in Moscow. There is no director. There are no rehearsals, costumes, decorations. Only the words of Soleimanpour and the performer's presence and voice. The chosen people to read the script for this festival were actors Sergey Yepishev, Alexey Yudnikov and Anatoly Bely, activist Anton Krasovsky, actresses Alisa Grebenshchikova and Yuliya Aug, writer and journalist Mikhail Zygar (I saw his performance).

The playwriter sets strict boundaries inside of White Rabbit, Red Rabbit. He gives specific instructions to the actor and audience members, such as, for example, to count the number of spectators. By the way, there were 218 people present. I'm saying "the actor" but, of course, Soleimanpour totally breaks down our understanding of traditional theatre roles and invites us to his experiment. This experiment involves numerous interactions between the performer and the audience. However, it is better off not knowing what these interactions look like because the essential concept behind the White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is the unique reaction on what is going on the stage.

The whole script resembles a confession of the man from Iran who cannot leave his country in the year 2010 and a conversation between him and the audience - they agreed to play this game by his rules.

During Zygar's performance, there were people who were obviously not keen on obeying these rules - they shouted random numbers while counting and were impersonating auction's workers. The play also touches on suicide issues, the nature of orders and obedience and demands an actor to drink poisoned water - this points to the role of imagination and reality in theatrical pieces. And, again, spectators calmed themselves by saying it is not real.

Moreover, the whole theatrical shell is broken not only by the script itself but also by the location of the performance. It was not a theatre, it was a cinema where the whole stage was set in contrast with a stage in a theatre - we had to look down at the actor, whereas the stage at the theatre is not usually constructed this way.

Let's face one thing - the less you read about White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, the more you will be impressed when you watch it (especially considering the fact that each performance is really a unique one due to different actors' interpretations). So I encourage you to do it, just so you could know what it's like to go down the rabbit hole where countless surprises await you on your way.

To post a comment, you must register and login.