“This Is Not a Gimmick;” The Producers of "White Rabbit Red Rabbit" On The Play No One Knows Anything About:
White Rabbit Red Rabbit is shrouded in mystery. The premise of the play: An actor is handed a previously unseen script on the evening of the performance. No rehearsals. No director. No set. Neither the audience, nor the performer, know what it is about. Everything unravels in real time.
The first actor to give this theatrical experiment a go in New York City was Tony winner Nathan Lane. The internationally acclaimed solo show written by Nassim Soleimanpour kicked off its New York premiere March 7 at the Westside Theatre, where it will play Monday nights, exclusively with a rotating star-studded cast that includes the likes of Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, Alan Cumming, Cynthia Nixon, Wayne Brady and more.
With performances now underway, what do we know for certain about White Rabbit Red Rabbit? Press notes state that Iranian playwright Soleimanpour—unable to leave his country—was inspired to write the piece from his experience of isolation, but reveal little else. Following Lane’s debut performance, theatregoers took to Twitter with their reactions, but were careful not to give away any spoilers. “White Rabbit Red Rabbit was wild,” said one audience member. Reviews were similarly ambiguous. A chat with producers Devlin Elliott and Tom Kirdahy helps us peel back the curtain, just a little.
“This is not a producer’s gimmick—this is a playwright’s conceit,” says Kirdahy, almost apologetically. “This is what the writer has intended. So we’re not being coy when we say we can’t tell you. It’s a requirement of our license.” Without offering specific details, Kirdahy and Elliott use words like “thought-provoking,” “entertaining,” and “funny” to describe White Rabbit Red Rabbit. It’s a play that can be performed by anybody, they say—men, women, people of all ages and all races.
“[It’s] a piece of theatre that also has something to say and has a social conscience about it,” explains Elliott. “[It is about the] humanity of people in general, it’s not politically left or right…it’s about who we are as people.” They also reveal that the script is peppered with hairpin turns and surprises, prompting “fear and exhilaration” on the part of the audience and performer…
http://www.playbill.com/article/this-is-not-a-gimmick-the-producers-of-white-rabbit-red-rabbit-on-their-best-kept-secret
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