Arts Center’s Rabbit a ‘plush’ production
In the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre’s previous show, Pinocchio, the title character dreams of becoming a real boy. In its current production, The Velveteen
Rabbit, which opened Friday night at the Arts Center in Little Rock, the title character dreams of becoming a real toy.
The moral is also pretty much the same: Love, persistence and devotion have their real-world payoffs. And both tales involve a fairy who works a bit of magic with predictably happy results. (It’s not quite the same fairy, but it’s the same performer: Genevieve West Fulks, who looks a little more angelic here than she did as Pinocchio’s fairy with the blue hair. She also lends a sweet soprano voice and even some puppeteering skills to this production.)
The title rabbit is a plush stuffed animal that has been stuffed into a boy’s Christmas stocking; he eventually becomes the boy’s special toy and constant companion, until a near tragedy leads to his transfiguration. (And no, I don’t think that spoils the surprise ending.)
For Keith Smith’s adaptation of Margery Williams classic, director Bradley Anderson doesn’t put full-size humans into toy costumes; instead, he doubles Katie Campbell and John Isner as narrators and enactors of the rabbit and her old, wise nursery friend, the Skin Horse.
The Boy (a fine and dewas light fully true-to-life performance by Alex Harkins) and his Nana (Aleigha Garstka) are human; the other toys, as well as the pair of wild rabbits who figure into the story, are manipulated by puppeteers (nice work by Fulks, Jeremy Matthey, Paige Carpenter and Mark Hansen).
Smith and Bradley manage to spin out the story to a full hour through careful pacing, with a nice musical background and a couple of songs, courtesy of Lori Isner. Erin Larkin’s costumes for Campbell and John Isner suggest their characters — Campbell in maroon velvet, Isner in a brown, turn-ofthe-20th-century suit. Mary Alyce Hare’s set neatly captures the nursery/bedroom, with a “crackling” fireplace and a full toy cabinet, with a tree-filled outdoor garden at the back.
The show runs at 7 p.m. Friday, 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 21. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 372-4000 or at the website, arkarts.com.