Review: RABBIT HOLE Shares One Family's Journey Through Grief Without But Lacks Any Significant Revelations

Thursday 18th April 2019, 7:30pm, Chippen Street Theatre

David Lindsay-Abaire's RABBIT HOLE presents a middle-class family's experience with the death of a child in a somewhat staid and reserved expression middle class America, albeit with Australia voices. Director Christie Koppe takes the 2007Pulitzer Prize winner and presents it with an Australian voice in a slightly confusing interpretation of the New York story.

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is awarded each year to a play that is original in its source and deals with American life. In past years winners have included pieces like NEXT TO NORMAL, HAMILTON, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, DOUBT: A PARABLE, I AM MY OWN WIFE and RENT. Pieces that have shone the spotlight on part of America not often seen on stages or screens, from mental illness, founding fathers, bohemian squatters and institutionalized abuse. RABBIT HOLE's exploration of a middle-class family's reaction to the accidental death of their 4 year old son is however not that groundbreaking a story in that it seems very familiar as a mainstream story. When this is paired with Lindsay-Abaire's restrained script and Koppe's reserved direction, this makes for a bland story that drags on with no significant purpose.

The stage design also hampers the pace and connection that this work could have possibly achieved. A suburban home sprawls across Chippen Street Theatre's broad stage making sight lines for anyone not in the center third of the audience uncomfortably difficult, particularly for scenes played out in on the lounge and the kitchen. Transitions are slow with lights flashing out of obscure crevasses with no apparent purpose and noise from backstage stage travels into the performance space distractingly.

The performers do the best they can with the lackluster story and slow direction with standout performances from Imogen Morgan as young mother Becca and Rachel Giddens, Becca's less stable sister Izzy. Peter-William Jamieson's portrayal of Becca's husband Howie is marginally overplayed whilst Alison Chamber's Nat, Becca and Izzy's mother, is much more overplayed, lacking a naturalness when compared to Morgan and Giddens' style. As young high schooler Jason, the driver that hit Becca and Howie's son, Sam Wallace's appearances lack direction and believability in a performance that has been styled for a realistic expression of middle-class suburban life. Koppe's decision to have the work presented with Australian accents saves the risk of imperfect replication of New York American accents but does prove jarring when set against the contents of Lindsay-Abaire's script which reference a number of things that specifically tie the work to an upper middle class family in Westchester County New York. The slow pace of the performance also diminishes the comic value of the work and anger is portrayed with the easy default of screaming further distancing the work from the ability to connect with the audience.

Given Lindsay-Abaire's script is overly cautious and middle of the road, even with a tighter staging and faster pace, RABBIT HOLE is still unlikely to find any significant purpose or present any new revelations.

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