Smoking is not something seen indoors much these days and was considered worthy of a warning on promotional materials for Like Rabbits. But the ritual of rolling a solitary cigarette set the scene for our subjects’ love affair, as tension mingled with cigarette smoke and pheromones.
Lappinova smoked cross-legged in all white as cocksure Lapin strutted around ducking and knee-sliding, unable to catch her attention.
When the inevitable affair begins, the carnal love is played out with fixated eyes, tangled limbs and delirious writhing. While the title suggests a one-track mind, our lovers meta-morphosed into rabbits not purely for sex but for the adventure, chase and fantasy of their imagination.
It is only when Lapin, played by creator Ben Duke, gets tired of the chase and returns to the mundanity of dishwasher salts and meals with the in-laws that cracks appear. His lover is committed to their other life and the divide is played out with devastating effect by Ino Riga, whose forlorn body betrays passion all but evaporated.
This theatre-dance, based on a Virginia Woolf short story, may play on gender types – the cautiously adventurous everyman versus the wildly passionate woman – but the relationship’s sad decline will be all too familiar.
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