White Rabbit Red Rabbit: Nick Mohammed sets the bar high in this all-star, white-knuckle theatre experiment

Nick Mohammed
Nick Mohammed - David Vintiner

I’m afraid I can’t tell you what happens in White Rabbit Red Rabbit. This electrifying piece of theatre – “not so much a play as an experiment”, as creator Nassim Soleimanpour puts it – hinges on a lack of knowledge, on the part of both the audience and, thrillingly, the actor. In each show, a different person tackles this solo work sight unseen: they cold-read the script and follow its mind-bending instructions in real time.

That said, since the provocative subject is the nature of consent and the limits of our obedience, perhaps I should break the rules. Soleimanpour wrote his play when he was a dissident trapped in Iran: because he refused to do compulsory military service, he was denied a passport.

His lab rat on this London press night was the brilliant comedian and Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed. There was a charged atmosphere from the moment he took to the stage and lifted the mystery script out of its envelope. “It’s quite thick,” he quipped – his only ad-lib, although his wry expressions provided constant commentary.

Soleimanpour’s writing is very meta, looping around to interrogate the act of a performer interpreting and communicating the work to an audience. It challenges us to analyse our natural responses: do we start to think of Mohammed as the author, and how much is our view of Soleimanpour shaped by him? Mohammed, who is an astonishingly good cold-reader and delightful company, certainly lent the author his charm, and – for better or worse – an eagerness to put us at ease. Other performers may revel in the uncomfortableness of the situation.

If this was purely an artsy trick, it would grate, but there is a profound underpinning. Soleimanpour makes a serious point about complicity in a repressive regime: just how quickly do we submit when pressured by an authority figure? (There is some eye-opening audience participation here.) It made me reflect on the pandemic lockdowns, another recent social experiment of sorts, while the show’s geographical origins and Soleimanpour’s observations on how the past shapes the future raise the grim spectre of the escalating crisis in the Middle East.

Yet, in beautifully poetic terms, Soleimanpour also muses on how writing is a form of liberation, exploration, and time travel. He is partly in Iran in 2010, but also now exists in every place around the world which has staged his play.

I will definitely be returning to see some of the other big names in this star-studded season, which features everyone from Richard Gadd (of Baby Reindeer fame) to Daisy Edgar-Jones, Michael Sheen, Catherine Tate, Lenny Henry, Minnie Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Stockard Channing, Miriam Margolyes, Olly Alexander, and Paloma Faith.

Mohammed set a high bar, skilfully navigating the tonal shifts of Soleimanpour’s writing. One moment, he was throwing himself into an animal impression, the next pausing, visibly shaken, to let a devastating reveal land. It’s a reminder of how exciting live theatre can be when we take the safety catch off, and that art can and should strike a powerful blow against tyranny.


Until Nov 9. Tickets: 0330 333 5961; sohoplace.org