Next month, prepare for something completely out of the ordinary from the already-extraordinary St. Lou Fringe.
The STLFringe Festival’s summer show of the season, “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit,” is returning for one performance only in celebration of Let There Be Theatre Day on Sunday, March 13. The day is in recognition of theatres going dark in March 2020 in the wake of the global pandemic, as well as in acknowledgment of the important role theatre plays in people’s lives.
At 2 p.m. on March 13, more than 200 venues around the world will perform “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” simultaneously to honor the art of live performance. In St. Louis, the performance will take place at the Schlafly Tap Room downtown.
The internationally acclaimed play by Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour premiered in 2011 and has since been touted as “an audacious theatrical experiment.” The play is performed without rehearsals or a director, and with a script waiting in a sealed envelope on stage for the actor – who is a different performer each night.
St. Lou Fringe president and artistic director Matthew Kerns calls “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” an absurdist adventure of comedy and drama that questions the boundaries of the traditional scripted play process.
“Having the actor not see the script beforehand gives a profound sense of the writer’s voice in the room. Further, the spontaneity of an actor reading a script for the first time and discovering it with the audience gives complete authority and power to the writer’s voice,” Kerns said. “At the heart of the play is the idea of someone trying to speak through someone else and the question of what censorship means. The questioning of our voices in this country – and boundaries of censorship being pushed for all of us – is what makes this piece of work vital and relevant for our patrons, fellow artists and the time we live in.”
Forbidden to leave his native Iran, Soleimanpour wrote a play which traveled the world in his place. “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit,” which has been translated into more than 25 different languages, has been performed 1,000-plus times by some of the biggest names in theatre and film, including actors Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane and John Hurt.
Local actor Libby Pedersen will see the script for the first time on March 13 and perform it before a live audience. A veteran of more than 150 regional productions, Pedersen also works off-stage with young artists and creating youth arts opportunities as founder and executive director of Ignite Theatre Company.
“I am so honored (and terrified) to participate in this project. I did need a ‘something that scares me’ event for March so this is perfect timing!” Pedersen said.
Up next for St. Lou Fringe is the STLFringe PRIDE Series play, “An Act of God,” by David Javerbaum in June; the annual STLFringe Festival in August featuring headliners The Lola Van Ella Bordella, a Break the Mold Productions fashion show, and the St. Louis premiere of The 24-Hour Play Project that asks six local companies to write, produce, direct and present a play in 24 hours.
Later this year, STLFringe will present Josephine’s International Burlesque Festival in October, and the first-ever STLFringe on Ice Film Festival that celebrates independent filmmakers focusing on the holiday movie genre.
Kerns says St. Lou Fringe is in a dynamic expansion phase and there’s a lot to be excited about.
“I believe that artists make work about the times they live in, so as we come out of the fog of the pandemic, my hope is that our community of artistic work-makers creates St. Louis stories for the stage to mark this chapter of time,” Kerns said. “The losses, like Michael Shreves (aka Michelle McCausland); the lessons, like how to pivot fast and keep art happening under any and all circumstances; and that we never take for granted the joy of those stories being shared together in the magical space of a darkened theater.”
St. Lou Fringe has produced more than multidisciplinary works of art created by independent artists – works that have grown into productions locally, regionally and nationally, including off-Broadway.
For more information, including tickets for “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit,” visit stlfringe.org.
