In the United Kingdom, Jessica Hynes and Reece Shearsmith have joined the final weeks of White Rabbit Red Rabbit at London’s Duchess Theatre. Hynes appears on November 30 and Shearsmith on December 14. Nassim Soleimanpour’s play asks each performer to open an unread script on stage, encountering its instructions without rehearsal alongside the audience.
Jessica Hynes and Reece Shearsmith have joined White Rabbit Red Rabbit at the Duchess Theatre in London, United Kingdom. Hynes is scheduled for November 30, her first stage appearance in more than five years. Shearsmith takes the closing performance on December 14. Olivia Cooke’s November 23 appearance had already been announced.[1], [2]
The play by Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour gives each night to a different actor. The performer opens a sealed script on stage, having never read it beforehand. There is no rehearsal or direction: the actor encounters the instructions for the first and only time in front of that evening’s audience. The new performers join this same unrehearsed format.[1]
Soleimanpour wrote White Rabbit Red Rabbit while unable to leave Iran. It premiered in 2011 and has since received more than 4,000 performances in over 25 languages. Its subjects include obedience, freedom of expression and the relationship between actor and audience. The London season marks the play’s fifteenth anniversary.[1]
There & Then, the company founded by Soleimanpour and Omar Elerian, presents the season in association with Nica Burns. It is the company’s inaugural production. Earlier participants in the London run include David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker, Riz Ahmed, Joe Lycett, Christopher Eccleston and Steve Pemberton.[1]
