REVIEWS
Rabbit by Nina Raine
BRITISHTHEATRE.COM REVIEW: Rabbit, Mercury Theatre Colchester âœâœâœâœ
24th March 2018 by Paul T Davies
Paul T Davies reviews Rabbit, a play by Nina Raine presented by Protocol at the Mercury Theatre Colchester ahead of its season at Theatre N16.
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Ahead of the National Theatre’s transfer of Nina Raine’s latest play, Consent, into the West End, Colchester based ProToCol Theatre revives her first play at the Mercury and Theatre N16. Bella is celebrating her 29th birthday, and has gathered friends and ex lovers, and as the night goes on and more bottles are drunk, arguments and truths are revealed. Bella’s Father is in hospital, dying of a brain tumour, and scenes with her father entwine with the drinking scenes. It’s a play of much verbal jousting, with brilliantly timed direction from Robbie Taylor Hunt and a top draw cast.
The women fight with wit and the men feel objectified and scrutinised, and Yasmin Jafri’s excellent Bella holds the play together, dealing with the transitional tones of the play, (from drunken defensiveness to poignant memories of her father), very well. She had a complicated relationship with her father, mainly due to his unfaithfulness to her mother, but Tim Freeman brings a beautiful regret to Father, the brain tumour allowing him to see things with more clarity than the younger, squabbling generation. Charlotte Luxford is a luminous Emily, the voice of reason trainee surgeon, and she is matched by Richard Conrad’s perfectly observed Tom, the male balance to her sweetness and ambition. Chris Anderson is powerfully vocal as Richard, a barrister who introduces himself as a writer, opinionated yet vulnerable and Zoe Biles savours every punch line she is given as drunk, loud Sandy, almost stealing the show! The cast work beautifully together and their timing is perfect.
Impressive as it is, Raine’s script still contains some first play problems. In places she is over eager to get her message across, the argument that begins act two sounds like a University dissertation, and undermines the beautiful observational atmosphere of the first half. The set and characters will be replicated in every bar in every high street tonight and every night, but not many people would argue like these five do. Some characters strike only one note, and needed much more depth, and, just as the night looks as if it’s going to implode the group massively, the big revelation is that Bella’s Dad is dying, which is only news to the other characters. And Father isn’t given enough to demonstrate his bullying, which is a shame as he is the symbol of a dying patriarchy.
In saying that, the scenes with Father are beautifully written and performed, and this is a brave choice of play from a company not afraid to tackle the risks head on. They teem with relent, rolling with the script confidentially, and this is an excellent evening’s entertainment.
Rabbit opens the new Theatre N16 space 25th-29th March, tickets here: https://www.theatren16.co.uk/
Protocol Theatre presents: Rabbit by Nina Raine | Review
MARCH 27, LONDONTHEATRE1.COM BY BEN POWELL
Protocol Theatre make their London debut with this zesty production of Nina Raine’s first work. The bulk of the action takes place around a reserved restaurant table as central character Bella brings together an assortment of her nearest and dearest friends, most of whom have never met, to see in her 29th birthday in an increasingly intoxicated fashion.
The play discusses the gender divide and questions how it might affect or, at times, arguably dictate our places in the order of things. Though I did feel that the premise of bringing together these characters who don’t much appear to like each other was a slightly contrived device on Raine’s part to facilitate the otherwise highly interesting exploration of how we treat each other as men and women, as well as the nature of death itself, Robbie Taylor-Hunt’s direction is fresh and innovative in terms of how it tackles the progressive drunkenness and keeps the conversation flowing as fluidly as the copious alcohol the cast of characters quaff.
Yasmin Jafri plays Bella’s conflict with great care, ensuring she doesn’t fall too far into a state of booze-fuelled self-pity in the light of being very nearly thirty. Jafri is a confident guide through the majority of the play’s tipsy chatter but her best is saved for the scenes shared with Bella’s father, as played by Tim Freeman, in which she powerfully argues against his choice not to fight his impending mortality. Freeman gives a strong, confident performance as Bella’s ailing father and his frustration with himself and his illness is palpable throughout. Particularly touching was the final scene of the play in which we the father imagining his favourite child in her early years, whilst Bella looks on from the distance.
Chris Anderson, as Richard, is every bit the smarmy borderline chauvinist you need him to be to facilitate some of the plays more ‘out there’ perspectives on the gender gap and battle of the sexes. He works exceedingly well with Zoe Biles, as Sandy, whose entrance was a great injection of energy into the show. Though one of the more flamboyant of the characters onstage, Biles performance is charming and, after the show, I and others were all able to acknowledge the ‘Sandy’ in our lives – a testament to Zoe’s brash, but honest, performance.
Emily, played by Charlotte Luxford, is perhaps the only truly level-headed member of the party and the matter-of-fact way Charlotte discusses death and the nature of being a surgeon whilst tucking into some Italian food provided one of the comic highlights of the evening. Richard Conrad’s Tom is a welcome contrast to the overt machismo of Richard and, at moments of more awkward chat, wonderfully embodied the universal feeling of being someone who isn’t quite drunk enough for the talk going on around them. I only regret that we didn’t get a little more from each of the characters.
Overall, Taylor-Hunt has assembled and led a strong ensemble cast of thoughtful, excitable performers for this first venture into London for Protocol Theatre. Here’s to whatever may be next!
Review: Rabbit, Mercury Studio Theatre, Colchester, Evening Gazette
When Colchester’s Protocol Theatre group set their stall out to showcase the professional talent that was available in the town, they obviously knew what they were doing.
Following a triumphant production of The View From A Bridge last year, they’ve opted for a more modern examination of relationships with Nina Raine’s Rabbit.
Set in a bar where a group of obnoxious late 20-somethings are putting the worlds to rights, what’s interesting about this play is the juxtaposition as lead Bella deals with the imminent death of her father.
I’m not convinced on the strength of the play itself - but then I’m not a 20-something city worker anymore - but in terms of direction and acting, this is another feather in the company’s cap.
Both Yasmin Jafri, as the troubled Bella, and Tim Freeman as her dad, are excellent, while Charlotte Luxford, Chris Anderson, Richard Conrad and Zoe Biles lend, in varying degrees, humourous and emotional support. With great direction by Robbie Taylor Hunt, I can’t wait for the next one.
A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
BRITISHTHEATRE.COM REVIEW: A View From The Bridge, St Martin’s Church Colchester âœâœâœâœ
by Paul T Davies on 29th May 2017
A View From The Bridge.
St. Martins Church, Colchester.
25 May 2017
4 Stars
New Colchester based company ProTo Col, (Professionals Together in Colchester), aims to utilize the talents of creatives in the local area, to establish a base outside London. It’s an ambitious aim, and with their first production, the bar has been set high, with an excellent production of Arthur Miller’s classic. Played on a stripped down set in St. Martin’s Church, the production has to rely chiefly on the acting talents of the ensemble, and this is a great cast who bring Miller’s work to exuberant life.
Set in 1950s America near the Brooklyn Bridge, Eddie, the tragic protagonist, has an unhealthy interest in Catherine, his wife Beatrice’s orphaned niece. When the family welcome two illegal immigrants into their home, the courtship of Catherine by Beatrice’s cousin, Rodolpho, brings out uncontrollable jealousy in Eddie. In the lead role, Tim Freeman gives the performance of his career, a bear of a man, walking with a gait that becomes more pronounced as his jealousy cripples his life and marriage. The interest in Catherine is never portrayed sexually, but here the performance makes clear how it not only poisons Eddie, but those around him and his neighbourhood. The evening, however, belongs to Sara Jane Derrick as Beatrice, from the outset anxious about the arrival of the immigrants, but, as her performance makes clear as the play progresses, she is a woman who has always known about Eddie’s interest in Catherine, and does what she needs to do to survive that. Let your eyes fall on her at any point in the production, this is a woman tortured yet committed to saving her marriage- mesmerising work. For the first time in viewing this play many times, I really felt that Eddie was a symbol of fascism, reflecting Italy’s then still fresh past.
This, however, is a terrific ensemble. Making her professional debut, Ella D’Arcy Jones is a strong Catherine, innocent and naive, yet becoming as determined as Eddie to carve out her own future. Jacko Pook is a beautiful, gentle Rodolpho, sensitive to his surroundings and initially to Eddie’s authority, yet becoming a man prepared to fight for love. Jonathan Davis links the play together very well as narrator Alfieri, and, although it may seem strange that the production had three directors, Richard Bland, Joseph Lyndon and Movement Director Alice Murray have used the space beautifully. There are areas that needed some further work to make this a complete production, occasionally the acoustics of the venue, together with some convincing accents, conspire against clarity, and some of the smaller roles could have been brought out more. However, this is a true and gripping rendition of Miller’s play, and bodes well for future productions.