Original Death Rabbit review: Kimberley Nixon is terrific as reclusive anti-heroine in internet search for validity
Given that this one-woman play features an actress in a pink rabbit onesie, complete with ears, one might be forgiven for thinking that whimsy was going to be the order of the day.
Rose Heiney’s drama, originally broadcast on Radio Four, starts off all quirky idiosyncrasy and post-university angst, before tumbling down the, yes, rabbit hole of the internet into some very murky places.
Heiney, whose appealing first play Elephants was a hit at Hampstead Downstairs, is a witty and perceptive writer and, line by line, this is a treat. What it doesn’t quite do is draw its strands together to cohere overall, although that’s not because of any lack of effort on the part of the indefatigably terrific Kimberley Nixon, who must surely be boiling in that costume.
Her reclusive anti-heroine measures out her life in Twitter followers as her family disintegrates and her mental health begins to feel ever more unstable.
Hannah Joss’s peppy production shows that Heiney has much of import to say about our desperate search for validity via the internet and the self-loathing it can induce, as we frantically seek connection on social media while turning away from social connections in our actual lives.
Until February 9 (020 7287 2875, jermynstreettheatre.co.uk)
