Original Death Rabbit by Rose Heiney - Jermyn Street Theatre, London 2** William Russell
London.
ORIGINAL DEATH RABBIT
by Rose Heiney.
2** painfully unfunny just painful
Jermyn Street Theatre, 16 B Jermyn Street, London SW1 63Jto 9 February 2019.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat sat 3.30pm.
Runs 90 mins No interval.
TICKETS: 0207287 2835.
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Review: William Russell 11 January.
A radio play which should have remained one.
This dire monologue created by Rose Heiney apparently started life on Radio Four – a case of what happened on Radio Four should stay on Radio Four if ever there was. The Original Death Rabbit is a young woman in a soiled pink rabbit onesie who inhabits a cluttered flat and spends her life on the internet publishing blogs, posting on Facebook, chatting up men, looking at porn, accosting people on Twitter and ultimately and inevitably trolling a hapless fellow net person so viciously that they commit suicide – or perhaps not because nothing on the net is for real.
Kimberley Nixon, who plays Death Rabbit, has learnt the rambling script well – no mean feat – but her robotic delivery does no help a monologue which really tries the patience and baffles. Jermyn Street rarely stages a turkey but this Rabbit is a theatrical turkey of Christmas proportions. That some people have become celebrities by their activities on the net, made fortunes from their blogs, is a fact of the world of social media and a look at someone who has gone viral ought to have been fascinating and informative. Sadly that is not the case. Ms Nixon does what she can with the material, but to little effect and the best thing about the evening was the set – designer Louie Whitemore has created a magnificently cluttered and sordid room for a woman at odds with the world to live in. Death Rabbit has family problems to cope with which beggar belief. The sad fact is this theatrical bunny is stone dead from the start and nothing director Hannah Jones or Ms Nixon do can breathe any life into the corpse.
The Original Death Rabbit: Kimberley Nixon.
Director: Hannah Jones.
Designer: Louie Whitemore.
Lighting Designer: Adam King.
Sound Designer & Composer: Alexandra Faye Braithwaite,
Production Photographer: Robert Workman,