Last year’s hit production by experimential playwright Nassim Soleimanpour
Imagine being 29 years old and unable to leave your country. Iranian Nassim Soleimanpour is a conscientious objector who refused to take part in military service, mandatory for all Iranian men. Soleimanpour turned his isolation to his advantage with a wild, utterly original play, an absurdist adventure that blends com... (more)
Last year’s hit production by experimential playwright Nassim Soleimanpour
Imagine being 29 years old and unable to leave your country. Iranian Nassim Soleimanpour is a conscientious objector who refused to take part in military service, mandatory for all Iranian men. Soleimanpour turned his isolation to his advantage with a wild, utterly original play, an absurdist adventure that blends comedy and drama. In White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, he distills the experience of an entire generation born amid the hardship of the Iran-Iraq war—computer-literate, well-informed young people who have never known an Iran other than the Islamic Republic.
With no director, no set, and a different guest performer each night, this play is performed by distinct local actors reading a script they see for the first time as they step onstage in front of a live audience. Using a menagerie of allegorical animals, the play is “not about Iran,” but grapples with the social phenomena of power, obedience, and manipulation. (less)