Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit is billed by The Assembly Theatre as part theatrical experiment and part social experiment
It’s all that. PLUS…
It’s a hell of an enjoyable evening and experience at the theatre.
The challenging issue, though, is that I can’t say that much about it because that would spoil the VOICE CHOICE must-see label. (and I beg you, dear reader, not to do any online research about the play). Please come to the Assembly with an open mind and no expectations whatsoever. The artist playing that night must also do the same.
What I can tell you – there’s a table, two classes of water, a chair and a ladder. If so desired, a carrot. Yes, a carrot. But I don’t believe it’s necessary. Another thing I can say about the event is that the artist who rips open the sealed envelope before the audience becomes a conduit for Soleimanpour’s voice.
Visit the Assembly Theatre website to see who else will perform.
Actor Tony Nappo was the artist I saw perform the script. For those who don’t know him, the picture above is of him. The last time I saw Nappo on stage was in Soulpepper’s production of Jesus Hopped the A Train.
This time it’s Tony out there on his own – again, no direction, no preparation.
Nothing.
I had the chance to speak with Nappo a few days before his performance to see how he’s feeling about this unique theatre experience. He’s going into a busy time – rehearsals at Tarragon for The Neighbours, plus he also teaches weekend Auditioning with Nappo sessions each month for one weekend.
He said he was feeling a nervous little excitement and: “The usual fear of failing and looking like an asshole.” He didn’t even know the tone of the evening, whether it could be fun or heartbreaking, but he was looking forward to the challenge of the evening.
Now that the performance is over, I had the chance to converse with him. His initial thoughts:
“It wasn’t a performance. It’s a strange thing. It didn’t feel like acting it. It was more of a conduit, a vessel, a filter which is described in the text.”
And in true Nappo style: “It was fuckin weird.”
He didn’t know what the tone of the piece would be – funny, serious, he had no idea. He calls the evening an experience. Tony kept the script’s pacing for over an hour, moving along. It never lagged or felt slow at all.
He says he tried not to think about what he calls the ‘experience’ of the evening. Tony’s daughter, Ella, said he couldn’t believe her father would be in front of people, and that he didn’t even know what he was going to do.
A big part of why he participated in Red Rabbit White Rabbit:
“Honestly, I knew [my daughter] was coming and I wanted her to have this concrete experience in her head where her father got up in front of a room full of people, without having a clue what he was going to do, and just do it.”
Nappo knew many friends would attend the event because it was sold out. Tony knew the crowd would be on his side, wanting him to do well. It was just jumping off the cliff. If he had failed in the experience of Red Rabbit White Rabbit, he failed. He had a certain confidence that the text had already been done so often that it was probably hard to fail at it. So right up until his name was called to come to the stage:
“I was backstage listening to fucking music. Sometimes, on an opening night, the sound of the crowd can make you fucking nervous. That’s the sound of stress to me when you hear the buzz of a crowd waiting for you to come out, and you haven’t done it yet in front of a crowd.”
Tony says he still gets nervous when he’s performing a play and it’s opening night. For Red Rabbit White Rabbit, he didn’t Google anything about the piece. The Assembly sent specific instructions a few days earlier, which he followed. The one thing he remembers:
“I had to stick to the script. It had to be read word for word. If I missed a word, I had to go back to it. If I missed anything, I had to go back.”
Tony tried not to add any words of his own or do anything that wasn’t in the script.
Spoiler alert. He did have to prepare an ostrich imitation:
“I looked up a fucking ostrich. I looked up the physical and vocal aspects of ostriches in case I had to do both. I don’t know if it came across on stage, but that’s the only thing I researched and prepared.”
For the remaining artists who will read the script this week, what would Tony say to them:
“I don’t know. It would probably be different advice for each person, depending on who they are and how they’re approaching it. I guess I’d say don’t think about it…just fuckin’ do it.”
As we neared the conclusion of our Zoom call, I asked Tony, at this point in his career, whether he’s increasingly relishing the opportunity as an actor to seek work that challenges, energizes, and recharges him.
He is.
He’s looking forward to the premiere of The Neighbours at Tarragon Theatre, which opens this month and runs into March. He’s smack dab in rehearsals right now with one week left before dress rehearsal.
It’s going really well, but Tony also says: “There’s never enough fucking time.” That’s a statement I’ve also heard from community theatre actors in their preparation.
Without spoiling too much, Nappo says the script delves into some dark, terrifying and funny shit. He compares it to peeling an onion. The result slowly sneaks up on you.
To learn more about The Neighbours, visit tarragontheatre.com
To learn more about Red Rabbit White Rabbit and the upcoming artists this week, visit: https://www.theassemblytheatre.com/whiterabbitredrabbit.
