by Kate Stratton
Theatre: Rabbit
Lyric Hammersmith
It was only a matter of time before physical theatre whizz kids Frantic assembly tackled a ready-made play - though, on the surface, this Australian blend of crazed farce and emotional wound-opening wouldn't seem an obvious choice. Still, surfaces are not what Frantic are about. Rather, they animate parts of the stage, and of the actors there - that most companies never reach. Their expressive physical style plugs them straight in to the emotions, allowing rare stage access to unspoken thoughts and feelings constantly erupting into consciousness.
That's the theory, anyhow. Unfortunately, with Rabbit, Frantic's heightened physical antics add needless oddity to an already bizarre text. Brendan Cowell's play, set in a hillside chalet, targets the Cave family as they rake over their dyfunctional relationships on a weekend away. There's daughter Madeline, an angry law-school drop-out, and her hip hop artist-cum-junkie boyfrind Spin. There's Dad, a strutting radio show host, his long suffering driver and flaky Botox-pumped Mum. A host of stimulants, skeletons, and yes, a rabbit all put in an appearance in the ensuing guilt fest.
The dramatic brew is one of surreal comedy and elemental melodrama-as if the Addams family had bonded wih King Lear, the spruced themselves up a bit. Frantic supply a carefully understated choreography-repeated flicks of the arm, bouts of synchronised wall hugging- but the play's lack of depth becomes harder and harder to ignore as it enters the darker second half. There's alot of talk about facing up to the 'real world', but Cowell seems to demand we take his characters' emotions seriously while clipping the action in gigantic inverted commas that neatly blunt the feelings. There are several acutely physicalised moments - and Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham, directing a talentled quintet, supply a powerful sense of emotions, constantly on the move. It's a back handed compliment, though, to say that the best bits of Rabbit are wordless.