“I said to my soul,
I said to my soul…”
Arthur C Clarke, always ahead of the game, had it that
the next stage of human evolution would see some kind of meld between man and
machine. The scientist-turned writer conceptualised the idea of communication
satellites which have played a huge part in the process but what the clever old
stick didn’t quite see was that machines would start to act as an extension of
human misery.
Originally broadcast on Radio 4, Rose Heiney’s play is
making its stage debut in a time of a world-wide web of social media neurosis;
an “…endless demonic mosaic of other
people’s stupid bullshit words words words, egos fighting egos like kamikaze
pilots in the sky…” The internet has brought knowledge but not so much
wisdom and we fall into it like thirsty donkeys at desert watering holes.
But this play is about rabbits, not donkeys, as the lone
character, an exceptionally bright Oxford graduate whose name we never learn,
has become eternally known as the Original Death Rabbit. ODR is played quite
magnificently by Kimberley Nixon who grabbed this one-woman play by its tail
and seamlessly inhabited the role, which is, ahem, more than can be said for
her shabby rabbit suit. She is funny, heart-rending and devastatingly real
deftly mixing in the comedy with desolate sorrow, her eyes welling up with
tears that stunned the audience a split second before another perfectly-timed
line made us laugh. I can fully understand how Kimberly won her BAFTA and, on
this performance, I fully expect that there’ll be more to come.
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| Kimberley Nixon photo Robert Workman |
The play is about loss, mental illness, and abuse… the
woman’s life has stalled after her academic achievement, a first no less and
all from a state school, has not enabled her to overcome her father’s violent
breakdown when, four days after finishing finals, he cut both their cat’s ear
and her hand, pushing it into the cat’s blood before her mother knocked him
unconscious with a potato masher.
Her father had undiagnosed schizophrenia and whilst he
was sectioned his daughter went into her shell or rather her rabbit onesie.
Heiney smartly swerves the serious using ODR’s own denial to bring out the
humour and to obscure the full horrors, revealing the actuality of the damage
in stages, keeping us laughing with one eye on the emerging tragedy. Kimberley
Nixon makes light work of this complex narrative balance as well as
single-handedly taking us back and forward into her character’s timeline and
browsing history.
The bunny suit had originally been a present from her
tutor after she’d written a paper on the awfulness of Playboy bunny girls… she
kept it for the novelty value but, after her father’s attack she began to wear
it again, inoculating herself with its innocence even as she moped about town
and, after hanging around a grave yard, been photographed in the background at
a teenager’s funeral. The image was picked up and she went viral… with dozens
of youngsters “death rabbiting” all over the country.
 |
| Photo Robert Workman |
This faddish fame enables her to find an illusory direction
in the wastelands of her twenties as she deludes herself that this will form
the basis of some monetizable career online… this was in the 2000s before paper
dollar content turned into very digital dimes. Living off an inheritance from
her aunt, she is able to indulge her fantasy “success” through her twitter feed
as Original Death Rabbit as well as a forum dedicated to the proper appreciation
of the major works of Richard E Curtis: 4 Weddings, Notting Hill, Love Actually
– no comma - and up to About Time. This most certainly does not include The
Boat The Rocked – obviously! – and she runs the group with a firm hand.
This side of ODR adds much humour to the plot and even
allows her meet up with a potential romantic interest although after he starts
quoting lines from Curtis’ films it’s clear he’s even more detached from
reality than she is.
This harmless lionisation of an under-appreciated
purveyor of middle brow cinematic comfort blankets is balanced by ODR’s darker
web activities, notably her trolling of an alternative comedian,
@hipsterripstercomedy who both feel make too much out of #mentalhealth on the
social network.
As her life gets more difficult – money running out, drink-fuelled
denial - the more she falls into a social-media dependency part of which
involves her trolling her nemesis in the cruellest of fashions from another
account she set up for these anonymous assaults.
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| Photo Robert Workman |
It’s a compelling story arc and a thoroughly disciplined
script which crosses back and forth before revealing exactly where our heroine
is. Kimberley Nixon is amazing, carrying the weight of the narrative with skill
and superb comic timing. She can flip the mood with expert instincts too and controls
this one bunny play from start to finish.
Props to Hannah Joss’ expert direction as well as Louie
Whitemore’s set and costume design – spot on if I remember the 00s right.
Original Death Rabbit runs until 9th February
and I would recommend it highly – details on the Jermyn Theatre website.
IThankYou Rating:
**** You’ll believe a bunny can cry… I predict this one will have a long run!
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