Bunny Bunny – Smock Alley – Review
by Frank L.

Bunny Bunny – Written and performed by Nora Kelly Lester

Lester appears on the ramp of the Boys’ School Theatre. Elevated above the audience, she is attired in a leopard-skin bathing suit, an off-white bum-freezer jacket with frogging, and black high heels. The bum freezer jacket has allusions to a ringmaster in a circus and a red clown nose brings us firmly into the world of comedy and pathos that is the world of the clown. She sports on her head a large straw hat with an upturned brim. From her mouth, she emits loudly words that are not polite as she uses her long legs to maximum effect. It is a dramatic entrance as she slowly descends the ramp. She has her audience engaged.

Eventually, she reaches the stage proper which consists of two separate piles of cardboard boxes.  On one of these piles sits prominently a red landline telephone. The set has a chaotic feel and the shiny red telephone is incongruous to it.

Money is a problem. Money is a big problem and Bunny has just received an eviction notice for non-payment of rent. She reads it out to great comic effect. The telephone rings and she agonises whether to pick it up or not. She reaches a brilliant compromise and so Bunny gradually draws the audience into her rabbit hole. At one point, she requires some audience participation which includes acting part of a scene from Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”. It is a roller coaster of ups and downs and includes a brilliant sequence of a Mum with a baby strapped on in front bringing the family dog for a walk. On a more sombre level, there is the search for love and she delves into the tragedy and the comedy of the relationships with an ex. It is all high energy as she walks the tightrope of the tragic and the comic which is the milieu of the clown.

The performance lasts just over an hour and Lester has the dramatic skills to keep her unlikely happenings in balance. It is pure entertainment and the audience was a buzz at the end. You leave with a skip in your step.

WRITTEN + PERFORMED BY Nora Kelly Lester
DIRECTED BY Nessa Matthews
PRODUCED BY Elysia McMullen
SET + COSUME DESIGN BY Ellen Kirk
LIGHTING DESIGN BY Conor Byrne
SOUND DESIGN BY Luc Schouten
GRAPHIC DESIGN BY Lloyd Collins
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Graeme C. Photography