By Stacey Delikat
Evolver Magazine
14 April 2003
The Griffin Theatre Company’s newest macabre comedy Rabbit by Brendan Cowell is not for the faint at heart. The story of a white upper class family’s weekend retreat gone mad, while shockingly hilarious, is disturbing.
Rabbit demands: what is real? Certainly not the superficial happiness of a family.
Paul Cave (William Zappa) is the voice of Australia. He is host of the famed radio show, “The Real World”, but ironically he has no idea what it means to be real. He is a typical asshole, obsessed with doing things his way and only his way and incapable of having compassionate relationships. He is dying, but to the people around him, he is already dead. His wife, Kate’s (Anni Finsterer) top concerns are Boxtox parties and fulfilling her husband’s needs – she has no concept of what it means to have a real life. Their daughter Madeline (Cecily Hardy) is incredibly confused: she preaches spirituality and separation from the material world, but can’t live without her car or weekly allowance. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Spin (Socratis Otto) is so emotionally fucked up he needs to shoot up every 20 minutes because the real world is too much for him to handle. The only character who periodically reminds us that there is a real world beyond Rabbit’s stage is Cave’s permanent driver (Russell Kiefel), who is desperately trying to take a few hours off to see his sick boy.
As these incredibly dynamic characters struggle to discover something real, we that if nothing else, the actors’ talent is very real. They all deliver brilliant and incredibly thought provoking performances, becoming one with their emotionally crippled characters.
Twenty-six year old Cowell is the recipient of the 2003 Griffin Award for New Playwriting for Rabbit. He said the idea for the show came up with itself. “I always wanted to write about these radio characters who have a lot of power in influencing what the country thinks, and I wanted to present this in a time when Australians are trying to figure out what they think.”
Cowell combined this idea with a father-daughter relationship conflict, something he said has always fascinated him, to create an “unapologetically contemporary” drama that evokes laughter, sympathy, and puzzlement from the audience.
“If the play makes you laugh and cry and sends you home with some questions, then we’ve done our job,” he said.
In that case, Cowell, director Kate Gaul, and the cast have achieved their purpose.
Rabbit’s climax is utterly frightening. It seems all of the characters have gone insane, some from drugs, others from grief, and others in fear. Yet, it is at that moment, sitting in a circle in a dimly lit room, wearing birthday hats and watching Paul Cave eat a freshly killed rabbit, that they finally all connect.
“Some nights it will be a stand and deliver comedy, and other nights a real surreal nightmare of an experience,” said Cowell.
Go and see for yourself. Rabbit is at the SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross through 10 May. Tickets are available at 9250 7799.