THE GOOD AND EVIL IN BOTH
WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT
AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
The concept sounded so intriguing that I begged to review this experimental theatre piece, White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Iranian German playwright Nassim Soleimanpour. The hook is that every performance is an “opening night” because every performance features a new actor who has never seen the script, has no one directing their performance, and is reading cold and acting from a hand-held script, with no rehearsal, for the first and ONLY time, since they can never do again. One and done. No do overs.
Lest you think this is too quirky to work, this 2010 play has been performed across the globe in 20 different languages! Now it’s L.A.s turn as Hollywood’s Fountain Theatre hosts dozens of actors for each of the performances through June 22. Some familiar names include Bill Brochtrup on June 15 and Sharon Lawrence on May 26, both of whom I first encountered in NYPD Blue; Candy Clark (American Graffiti) on May 23, and Ellen Geer on May 25.
We reviewers are constrained from revelations that would spoil this unique experience, which makes for tricky reviewing. I will share my personal impressions after letting my colleague, Ernest Kearny, who saw the opening night performance with writer/performer Sandra Tsing Loh, fill in some essential gaps for understanding. The day I saw it, May 18, the actor was Kurt Fuller (TV series Evil), who’s much taller in person than I expected! A lovely man and total pro.
Kurt Fuller and audience members
Ernest describes White Rabbit, Red Rabbit as “an interesting and provocative theatrical game, a hybrid of Story Theatre and immersive Role-Playing Game (RPG).” He explains Souleimanpour’s back story: “The author is Iranian, and wrote this play to go where he could not go at the time, to theaters all over the world. He was denied a visa due to his refusal to perform military service but was finally permitted to see his work in Australia in 2013, after the diagnosis of an eye disorder released him from the service obligation.”
Ernest sets the scene: “On stage is a sparse set that displays the sharp divisions of red and white conveying the impression of a child’s game board. There’s a red-and-white ladder, red-and-white table, two clear glasses, and what may be a vial of poison.”
I am not fully allowed to tell you why it’s called White Rabbit, Red Rabbit but rabbits, bears, ostriches and cheetahs are conjured by the author in these “…seventy minutes of combined monologue, story, and interaction (that) investigates authority, autonomy, complicity, and the decision to live, or not to.”
The “interaction” refers to audience participation, written right into the script. Audience members count off at the beginning, and when called by number, come up to the stage to follow instructions in the script that the actor reads to them.
Which leads to one of the ruminations inspired by the play: Do we all just blithely follow orders? I’ve never been much of a fan of audience participation but even though I was reviewing, I ended up being called up, and I did as instructed.
Audience member and Kurt Fuller (on floor)
The explanation for “why rabbits” is a story Suleimanpour explains in a way that, if I were sitting in the audience paying close attention, I could have followed more easily than being up on the stage, climbing a ladder, being a rabbit. So I kinda missed that part. Though I suppose I get the “gist,” that behavior can be learned and it’s not always a good thing. Maybe it’s not even a choice.
Another element of this production is that you’re asked to participate in a post-show conversation with actor and audience, upstairs in the very cozy café. So I did, and people asked Kurt Fuller different questions about the act of performing a play cold. But I was asking myself, “How can I make sense of what’s going on in the play if I am onstage participating it,” and figured he must have felt like that, too. So it’s a wonder he had the presence of mind to answer when I asked, “What do you take away from performing this piece?” and he responded, “It makes me realize just how easy evil is.”
I will say this: a few of us onstage were asked to bare our teeth the way we think rabbits do. Someone shot a photo and to be perfectly honest, it is embarrassing as hell! Not going to share it.
If you’re up for the unconventional, you’ll find it here.
photos May 18, 2025, by Terri Roberts/Fountain Theatre
White Rabbit Red Rabbit
Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave.
Fri, Sat & Mon at 8; Sun at 2
ends on June 22, 2025
for tickets ($25–$45), call 323.663.1525 or visit Fountain Theatre
pay-what-you-want and regular seating is available Mondays
for more shows, visit Theatre in LA
• Friday, May 16 at 8: Paul Raci (Academy Award nominee for Sound of Metal)
• Saturday, May 17 at 8: Jonathan Slavin (Santa Clarita Diet, Dr. Ken, Better Off Ted)
• Sunday, May 18 at 2: Kurt Fuller (Evil)
• Monday, May 19 at 8: Guillermo Cienfuegos (artistic director, Rogue Machine)
• Friday, May 23 at 8: Candy Clark (American Graffiti)
• Saturday, May 24 at: Patrick Keleher (Fountain’s Fatherland in NYC)
• Sunday, May 25 at 2: Ellen Geer (artistic director, Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum),
• Monday, May 26 at 8: Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue)
• Friday, May 30 at 8: Maddox K. Pennington (nonbinary writer, professor, stand-up)
• Saturday, May 31 at 8: Jeanne Sakata (actor and playwright)
• Sunday, June 1 at 2: Ben Palacios (Running Point, Palm Royale, Tyler Perry’s SISTAS)
• Monday, June 2 at 8: Pam Trotter (Abbott Elementary)
• Friday. June 6 at 8: Bernard K. Addison (Fountain Theatre, Antaeus, A Noise Within)
• Saturday, June 7 at 8: Joshua Malina (The West Wing)
• Sunday, June 8 at 2: Rabbi Anne Brener (psychotherapist, author, public speaker)
• Monday, June 9 at 8: Brian Kite (Dean, UCLA’s School of Theater Film and Television)
• Friday, June 13 at 8: Behzad Dabu (How to Get Away With Murder),
• Saturday, June 14 at 8: Simone Missick (Luke Cage)
• Sunday, June 15 at 8: Bill Brochtup (NYPD Blue)
• Monday, June 16 at 8: Ava Lalezarzadeh (The Morning Show)
• Friday, June 20 at 8: Chris Renfro (Queer as Folk, Broadway’s Oh, Mary)
• Saturday, June 21 at 8: Harry Groener (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek)
• Sunday, June 22 at 8: Sufe Bradhaw (Veep)
