Who: Et Alia Theater
What: One-night-only performance of White Rabbit Red Rabbit
Where: Theater for the New City, Johnson Theater, 155 First Ave. between Ninth & Tenth Sts.
When: Sunday, March 13, $10-$18, 8:00
Why: On Friday, March 13, 2020, theaters across New York City were shuttered because of Covid-19. On March 13, 2022, at 8:00, to mark the two-year anniversary and to celebrate the reopening of venues around the globe, international companies will be performing Berlin-based Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s 2011 autobiographical hit White Rabbit Red Rabbit as part of Let There Be Theatre — A Call to Action. The event is organized by Berlin-based Aurora Nova founder Wolfgang Hoffmann, who explains: “Ten years ago, almost to the day, I performed in a show at the Fadjr Festival in Tehran. At the festival hotel I was introduced to a young unpublished playwright who did not have a passport because he had refused to do military service. In order to get his work in front of an audience, he had devised a play that had to be performed as a cold read, without the need of a director, set, or rehearsals. All it needed was for a brave performer to agree to read a text in front of a live audience, without first knowing what the play was about. I liked this young man and loved his idea and spontaneously agreed to help produce his show at the Edinburgh Fringe later that year. When I finally saw the show performed live, I realised what this playwright had achieved. Through the power of his words alone he had written himself to freedom.”
Here in New York, Et Alia Theater, a company founded and led by international women, will be staging White Rabbit Red Rabbit at Theater for the New City, performed by co-artistic director Maria Müller (On How to Be a Monster, Where Are You from Again?). During the pandemic, Et Alia made the indie film This Is Me Eating___, then performed it live at the Alchemical Studios for one day last October. Tickets are only $10–$18 to see the sixty-to-ninety-minute show, which is always just as surprising for the actor as it is for the audience. I saw Obie winner Linda Emond in Soleimanpour’s autobiographical Nassim in 2018, which also involved no rehearsals and no prior access to the script, and it was a joy from start to finish. Among those who have previously performed White Rabbit Red Rabbit are John Hurt, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Stephen Rea, Sinead Cusack, Dominic West, Wayne Brady, Darren Criss, Kathy Najimy, Cynthia Nixon, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Urie, and Ken Loach.
Et Alia Theater will perform White Rabbit Red Rabbit on March 13 at Theater for the New City
“It is a one-time experience because the performer will have its opening and closing night of this play at the same time,” Hoffmann continues. “At 8 pm in every time zone there will be a multitude of shows starting at the same time for twenty-four hours, thus creating a massive theatrical community. On March 13 hundreds of courageous performers will face the same daring task to read a text they have not seen before to a live audience and everybody will be present at the same moment. The thought of all of us together, making theater once again — gives me boundless hope and energy.” Yes indeed, it’s great to be back.