Colin Thomas of
Straight.com put White Rabbit, Red Rabbit in context with Blind Date, another show performing at The Cultch in Vancouver. While distinct on the surface, both embrace randomness and risk as means to drive forward performance.
You can read the full article
here. An excerpt from Nassim's interview:
"Soleimanpour is quick to point out that the play's themes speak to issues that go beyond the borders of his country. 'I don't know why everyone likes to interpret the play as talking about my fucking political situation in Iran,' he complains. Being seen as a critic of the government is risky and, as he explains, 'The play is working without me in your country.'
Still, there's no denying the impact of the evening's most concrete image: an empty chair in the front row that speaks to the playwright's absence.
Soleimanpour remembers a Brazilian man who emailed him to share his experience of White Rabbit
. The man entered the theatre with his mom, who joked that they should sit next to the absent author and talk to him. The man demurred, saying, 'I don't know any words in Persian.' But later he wrote to Soleimanpour: 'We sat somewhere else, and then we came to this part of the play where you say, 'I'm not going to be at the show; maybe you have to keep an empty chair for me.' Suddenly, I started to cry and I thought to myself, 'I have to go back to my place and send you this email. Whenever you have your passport, you have a chair at my place. My mom will cook you something. And then we're going to sit and drink some beers together.'
In Iran, Soleimanpour received this email and wept."