Journey into the unknown: Actor Vaishali Bisht

A play that has no rehearsals! no director! The actor receives the script on stage, and the audience too, join the actor! A theatre experiment from Iran has had eminent actors perform it around the world.

Actor, curator, Children’s Theatre Festival, Vaishali Bisht will be performing the play today in Hyderabad. It is the first time for her even though the play is being enacted for the second time in the city. She is very excited and equally nervous and says, “I don’t know what to do. I am going to get the script at the venue. And I got the instruction that I have to carry my own water bottle, and I cannot drink water from others bottle. I don’t know what that is…I have also been asked not to watch the earlier version.”

“‘White Rabbit Red Rabbit’ is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning play by Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour. It is an audacious theatrical experiment and a potent reminder of the transgressive and transformative power of theatre. Forbidden to leave his native Iran, Soleimanpour wrote a play which travelled the world in his place. The audience joins each performer on a journey into the unknown; stumbling upon the personal and profound,” she elaborates.

Since its premiere in 2011, the play has been translated into over 25 different languages and has been performed over 1000 times by some of the biggest names in theatre and film - Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, John Hurt, Simon McBurney, Stephen Fry, Sinead Cusack, Marcus Brigstocke and Ken Loach. And by Anurag Kashyap, Richa Chaddah, Rajit Kapur, Arundhati Nag, Atul Kumar, Manav Kaul, Geetanjali Kulkarni and Yuki Ellias in India.

Ankit Bakshi of ‘Break a Leg; is presenting the play ‘White Rabbit Red Rabbit’ on June 8 at Apollo Foundation Theatre, Jubilee Hills, from 8pm onwards. Break a Leg! is a non-profit initiative that promotes theatre and is a think tank for events that create new audiences for the craft.