The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Review: New Haven Theater play ‘White Rabbit’
NEW HAVEN — The Chinese Lunar New Year, the year of the rabbit, began Jan. 22. It symbolizes prosperity, peace and longevity, and is the epitome of hope.
It is doubtful that there is any connection with the play “White Rabbit Red Rabbit” being performed by the New Haven Theater Co. at the English Building Market, courtesy of its owners Robert and Carol Orr.
Yet, with the mystery surrounding this play, one never knows.
You are invited to a unique and quite different theatrical event from May 18 to 20. Beware, you might find yourself on stage taking part in the intriguing production. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
“White Rabbit Red Rabbit” was written by an Iranian, Nassim Soleimanpour, a writer who values freedom but is not allowed to leave his home in Tehran. His hopes were to craft a play that would travel the world when he wasn’t allowed to do so.
Along the way, it has garnered awards such as the Dublin Fringe Festival Best New Performance, Summerworks Outstanding New Performance Text Award, and The Arches Brick Award from the Edinburgh Fringe, all since its debut in 2011.
What makes this production so different is its content (which I am not allowed to reveal), the fact that every night, a new actor is given the script in a sealed envelope and challenged to read it sight unseen before a live audience.
There are no auditions or rehearsals and virtually no set (just a ladder, table, two glasses of water and vial of something I can’t discuss) and no director giving cues or notes. Are you mystified yet?
Lest you think I am making this all up, let me name drop a few of the actors who have accepted the challenge in the past in New York: Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Thomas, Alan Cumming and Martin Short.
The play has been translated into more than 30 languages and performed over 3,000 times. New Haven Theater Co. members eager to mount the boards are Jenny Shuck, Marty Tucker, George Kulp, Steve Scarpa, Deena Nicol-Blifford and Trevor Williams.
For tickets ($20), visit newhaventheatercompany.com. The NHTC performs at the English Building Market, 839 Chapel St. in New Haven. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
The rabbits are a metaphor and not overtly political in nature.
Charles Isherwood of The New York Times has deemed it “playful, enigmatic and haunting.” Come judge for yourself.