Review: Shooting Rabbits at Sherman Theatre
Last night Zoey and I headed out to catch Shooting Rabbits at Sherman Theatre. I had no idea what to expect, so read on to see what we thought of the performance…
Review: Shooting Rabbits at Sherman Theatre
The story (apparently) follows a young man who travels to Spain to fight for his beliefs. I have to be honest, when we left the theatre, we both questioned what we’d actually witnessed. I’m going to break it down into sections, because I have quite a lot to dissect…
Review: Shooting Rabbits – Language
The mixture of English, Welsh, Spanish and Basque was completely overwhelming, and not just because we only speak English. Obviously, this was an issue, because there were many moments spoken in other languages that weren’t translated. This kind of left us feeling a bit lost as we watched the performance unfold, and when the folk in the audience laughed at the Welsh jokes, I kind of felt a bit isolated. Is this the point of the story?! If so, it worked, but not in a good way.
On top of this, the language overlapped, became distorted and, in the end, we had no idea what was being said or what kind of points were being made. I think it’s a mistake to include so many different languages without any kind of indication as to what people are saying, and I ended up zoning out a LOT, not something that happens often.
Review: Shooting Rabbits – Performance
Okay, so I’ve seen Neal McWilliams perform before, so I knew we were in for a treat to see him on stage once again. He is a fantastic actor, offering a very fragile and confused character within the story. The other performers (Alejandra Bacelar Pereira and Gwenllian Higginson) were also very good, with lots of strong interactions between them, but McWilliams stood out for me and Zoey absolutely loved the music from Sam Humphreys!
Review: Shooting Rabbits – Music, Stage & Lighting
The lighting was really effective throughout the performance, illustrating action and calm. I really liked the vibe in the studio, and the props and stage seemed to suggest a play full of vibrancy and excitement. However, this didn’t translate or unfold, and I was left questioning why the stage had been set in such a way. Also, there were moments when the performers did certain things (shaving, for example) where some of the audience couldn’t see the ‘action’, so use of the stage to its full potential was totally missed.
However, the music running through the performance was amazing, and Zoey really enjoyed this beautiful element. I think she’s spot on, it was really beautiful and gave the production a lot of heart and soul. It’s a shame the performance didn’t match with the music though…
Review: Shooting Rabbits – Storyline
The storyline. THe storyline. I can’t tell you what it was all about, to be honest. Quite frankly, it felt messy, with only the opening scene and closing scene standing out to me. The conversation at the start made me really think about where we come from, our accents, our heritage, our lives and how we relate this to other people’s experiences and lives. The final scene was also very powerful, with the concept of shooting labels and people of various beliefs really hitting the audience with an intense experience. As for the rest, I can’t say much at all, because it was a blur of mixed languages and mixed messages. There didn’t actually feel like there was a storyline, in my honest opinion, and that’s such a shame. As Zoey said, it’s a great concept, but actually it just didn’t work. It felt quite pretentious, a play with so many languages, mixed messages and no real concrete story at all.
Review: Shooting Rabbits – Overall Thoughts
I just didn’t get it. I couldn’t relate to anything or anyone, and the language created a massive barrier for us, and not in a good way. The music was beautiful and the performers were powerful and professional, but their hard work felt lost amongst the chaos. Perhaps, if you speak all the various languages within the play, you’d love it.
If you caught the performance, please let me know in the comments what you thought!
We saw it at theatre Clwyd last night. We came out before the end, couldn’t bear the sound level, the incoherence, the chaos…maybe that was what was intended, to make the audience thoroughly uncomfortable. If so, it worked too well. Felt like self-indulgent c**p. Sorry.
I have to admit, if I wasn’t reviewing it, I too would have left. It was all a bit too much.
I have to say I absolutely loved it! The way I saw it, you’re not meant to understand all the languages – one of the themes of the play, for me, was about gulfs in communication. It’s about how you can be speaking the same language as somebody and still not ‘get’ what they’re saying (like in the scene at the beginning), most of the time we’re all in our own echo chambers, repeating what we hear without thinking or understanding the implications of what we say (the headphones) and then there are times when language isn’t needed to understand each others’ experience (the dance).
The play was about what happens when you become militant and fight for an ideal, but how can you be sure that other people share your idea of what you’re trying to accomplish, do they see your identity in the same way you do (the shooting scene at the end)? What are words, at the end of the day, can we really know the meaning of what we say? Every word we utter is ‘translated’ by the listener, to fit their own view of reality.
It actually fits in incredibly well with what we’ve been seeing with Brexit – what did people think they were voting for? “Brexit means brexit” – what does that mean? How did people interpret politician’s words? Everybody was certain they know what it means, but so many others disagree. And once we acted on our mismatched ideas we descended into confusion, as we struggle to find a consensus for what we all said we wanted. The chaos and confusion of idealism and of language is what the play, I think, is trying to capture.
It’s great you enjoyed it, but it wasn’t for me, and I didn’t interpret it the way you have. Really glad somebody was able to take something away from it.
I think it’s great that you gained all that from this production 🙂