Bunnies (for short)

To give Kieran Lyn's play its full title "A Play Concerning A Farmer's Radical Attempt to Restore His Land to its Supposed Former Glory, and the Different Reactions of his Children: Bunnies (for short)".

The play is an allegory for what happens if you start to give people the freedom to chose who lives where. The initial, self justified, idea of "removing the non-native 'species' to allow the indigeneous ones to prosper" is chilling enough but, step by step, it moves to removing undesirables, then removing things you just don't happen to like then ... well, you see the progrssion. It is played out in the farmer's kitchen as he tries to restore his land by removing the non-native species of birds, animals, fish, bushes and trees ... a plan hated by his daughter and, eventually, embraced and enhanced by his son. A fascinating idea in its possibilities and interesting in that it is played out in stylised form with silent movie scene intros and even the odd song. This full length play is an extended version of a short play originally presented at the Bike Shed's "New Blood" festival and is directed by Fin Irwin.

Thomas Marshall's design makes the best possible use of the strange (but wonderful) space that is The Bike Shed with farmer Stamper's kitchen displayed in all its decay - shame that the table didn't match its description and that the chair seats ... well, that could have been better - but overall I really liked the space that was created even if it seemed to throw the actors sometimes (remember, acting is just about remembering lines and not bumping into furniture!). Lighting of the space was patchy but fortunately, in such a small area this did not detract from us being able to see.

The director needed to find the nature of this piece, it could have been played in a highly stylised form, or heightened reality, or even complete reality - to me there is nothing more chilling than words of hate and genecide spoken in a completely normal, quiet, voice, far more frightening than having them shouted by a madman. I'm not sure that any consistency was found in this production, it seemed to be neither one thing nor another and hence floundered a bit. I found Stuart Lyddon's Stamper disengaging; he never seemed to meet other character's eyes, or indeed really 'look' at anything, in a small space, eyeline is critical to engagement ... I also found his delivery lacked any real variation and the words he spoke were never driven by a thought process, in fact at times he appeared to be struggling especially when, for extended periods he was speaking upstage. Whilst Emily Spetch's Anne was well portrayed and spoken with conviction, she seemed uncomfortable in the space, as an actor rather than as a character. Michael Woodman as Max has all the good lines and the gift, for an actor, of a part with a fabulous range - his was the most convincing of the portrayals but again, for me, black comedy works best when played completely straight and not for laughs or shock. A combination across the board of directorial decision and perhaps a tad too little rehearsal to allow the actors to become comfortable with each other and the text?

Overall, I didn't really believe in the characters or the "family" that was created and I got no sense of the reality of the outside world - all of which left me somewhat detached from the whole.

I have to say, I wish I'd seen the original short version as I feel that it might have been tighter and more powerful - as it stands now I fear that the play fails to meet the promise of the idea and the production fails to explore the full potential of the play ... I am hoping that later in the run things will have settled in a bit more. Still, it was lovely to see the theatre full and enjoy the cocktails again ... The Bike Shed is a friendly place well worth a visit whether you come for the theatre, food or drink.

p.s. "Now rabbit is all I eat" .. any watcher of QI will tell you that if you only eat rabbit, you will die, so don't try this at home kids ;-)

Bunnies at the Bike Shed Theatre won the Mark Marvin Rent Subsidy as part of the Peter Brook Awards announced recently ... "for sustaining a theatre and associating itself with various companies serving the needs of its region in the South West".