“Star-studded rabbit circus”

Reviewer: Isaac Lim
Performance: 16 January 2016

This is not the first time this reviewer is catching White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour. (You may refer to my previous review here.)

On my second visit to this circus, I am still surprised by some of the elements in the show. For one, the Mandarin translation of the text feels refreshing. However, something is lost in the translation: that linguistically-predetermined connection with the playwright.

Renowned radio presenter and actor Dennis Zhou Chongqing helms this Mandarin edition and I must admit that his charm makes this rather didactic play much more tolerable.

Zhou presents himself confidently on stage, and engages with his audience easily. His experience as a radio presenter comes through in his delivery of the lines, especially the long narratives. At times, it is easy to forget that Zhou is playing the writer/character Soleimanpour because he recites the stories like he often does on radio.

The most important aspect of the theatre-experiment that is Rabbit lies in audience participation. And Zhou’s popularity among the local media scene and the easy rapport he has with his audience makes the show feel like a fan meet-and-greet. Enthusiastic audience members proactively take part in the roll-call, as well as answering any questions Zhou read from the script.

This edition of the play can certainly be considered the most star-studded. Apart from spotting many local celebrities and even political figures in the audience, Zhou also handpicks his co-actors from the long-running television soap 118, to join him on stage when volunteers are required.

At the climax of the play, when an audience member is supposed to take over the narration, model-actress Sheila Sim stands up and read the lines. Audience members are clearly excited as they are busy snapping shots of the on-goings on stage.

That said, the Iranian playwright’s work is probably beginning to lose its relevance. Soleimanpour has left Tehran in February 2015, and is now travelling around the world to tour his new works. The theme of being controlled no longer resonates with the audience, and the supposed surprise element appears to be just a performance device.   Still, this edition is very much enjoyable because Zhou’s wit and charm make it a fun theatre-going experience.

““77!” I yell out.”

Reviewer: Lee Min Jie
Performance: 13 January 2016

White Rabbit Red Rabbit is so masterfully crafted by Nassim Soleimanpour that I cannot help but participate actively.

I submit entirely to his entreaties. When there is a call to “Clap!” and I clap. “A little more!” and I clap until the applause dies down. This is how I, along with 168 other audience members, allow myself to be manipulated for an hour that evening.

The play thrusts the thorny issue of choice, or the lack thereof, and consequences in your face.

Everyone in attendance has a choice. To clap, to close our eyes, to number off, to sponsor a dollar, or even to leave the theatre.

But none of us opt to leave. We all choose to stay.

Yet choice is exactly the crux this play. Nassim refused to do military serve for 2 years in Tehran and the price of that was a passport that would have allowed him to travel the world.

His art becomes his passport to the world.

Arguably certain points are banal and belaboured but undeniably the play provides food for thought.

The solo performer Maimunah Bagharib is sincere and sprightly in her performance. This YouTube sensation is unafraid to be vulnerable and true to her feelings in the face of such a raw premise. Her sensitivity to text is what holds her in good stead when she falters in the beginning while sizing up the audience. Her impeccable comic timing sustains the laughs when her energy fizzles towards the end of her role. Maimunah’s bubbly personality sparkles occasionally, but enough for me to understand why her fans are so enamoured with her.

White Rabbit Red Rabbit is a play that will morph into different dimensions according to the delivery of the performer but it is Nassim’s words that will leave you thinking.

“No Director Needed”

Reviewer: Isaac Lim
Performance: 21 January 2015

Nassim Soleimanpour is not allowed to leave Iran.

He refuses to serve the army, and thus is not entitled to apply for a passport.

He writes a contemporary play that messes with theatre conventions.

It gets translated into 15 languages.

And tonight, he is here at the Esplanade Recital Studio.

This is a show with no director: the actor reads the script for the first time and the cold read IS the performance. This is as raw, and exciting as it gets.

White Rabbit Red Rabbit, by Soleimanpour, is presented at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival as a festival highlight; and with four talented and/or popular actors performing each night, the show promises to enthrall audiences.

And this reviewer wasn’t disappointed.

The opening show features theatre veteran Lim Kay Siu, who is welcomed on to the stage holding a vial on one hand and his personal water bottle on the other. He receives a sealed envelope containing the script from a staff member of the festival.

He promptly reads the content.

What ensues is an hour-long performance packed with surprises, mysteries, (unintentional) comic moments, and opportunities for the audience and the actor to think about life, and about theatre.

Soleimanpour is at once very far away and very present. Lim reads the script aloud, carefully following every instruction and dutifully carries out the respective actions as directed/written. White Rabbit Red Rabbit, essentially written as a first person narrative, works on both the actor’s performance and the audience’s spectatorship. It is highly interactive, with audience members being “volunteered” in the script to perform certain tasks on stage. Every audience member is duly acknowledged in the space as the script called for a number off. The divide between audience and actor is never quite clear.

In the opening “demonstration”, a man acts as a rabbit, visiting the circus to watch a show, which has Lim playing a cheetah acting as an ostrich. Soleimanpour later explained that the circus was an analogy for the theatre: that Lim is “acting” as the writer “acting” a character.

The show then begins to throw up various confusing notions and uncomfortable possibilities, all within the safe confine of the theatre space. The vial Lim brought with him contains arsenic, or rat poison. It is then emptied into one of two glasses of water on stage.

The playwright then explains how he is kept away from the performance, both in terms of time and space. He wrote the piece in 2010, in Tehran, and mentions that Facebook access is limited and the Internet is very much policed. He even invites audience members to email him, and he will be happy to chat on with them after the show is over.

Soleimanpour is a master of words, although he says that it is challenging for him to be writing in English. He manages to provoke laughter and incite fear in the audience.

In the final scene, a volunteer takes over the reading, and Lim follows the directions in the script, drinking from one of the two glasses. He lies on the stage floor and the audience is then asked to leave the theatre.

This performance of White Rabbit Red Rabbit is cheeky and fun. There was a large group of enthusiastic students present in the audience tonight which made the show even livelier. As I left the theatre, my mind was running wild with the many ideas thrown up in the show, having been entertained and intrigued.

An experiment with one actor, one playwright, one script and no director, resulting in a unique experience that can never quite be replicated ….

That’s theatre.