Velveteen Rabbit Unicorn Theatre 2017

The Velveteen Rabbit

5
Reviewer's Rating

Perfect for the Christmas period, “The Velveteen Rabbit” is a heart-warming and much-loved classic story of a toy rabbit’s relationship with the world and his owner little Boy, the complicity of which is performed by the two actors with great subtlety and humour. Moreover, the story is told with beautiful skills and live piano music. With an articulated robot, an enormous castle and knights set, a model steam-engine and more, the little boys unwraps his Christmas presents to discover a splendid, fat and bunchy Rabbit amidst a giant stocking. But how can Rabbit compete with all these mechanical, modern and moving toys? Despite his desire to become real through the love of his owner, Rabbit is soon forgotten in the cup-board.

After a playful tidying-up session, however, Rabbit’s and the Boy’s friendship develop into a world full of adventures: they sail off with Rabbit as captain, experiencing a storm, falling into water and getting shipwrecked in India. The choreography, props, sound-effect and lights really come to their own in these scenes, and are just superb: the bed becomes a sailing boat or a mountain, while the bed-throw is folded into an elephant! With a smooth unfolding of the different scenes, the audience, both children and adults, sat mesmerised, and while they responded to an enthusiastic pillow fight with great laughter, they marvelled at the snow storm.

While Rabbit has definitely become real through the love of his owner and is able to experience emotions and happiness, he is also getting old. Still, both are playing cow-boys and Indians, hide-and-seek and tauromachy in the luscious garden and the starry woods. Rabbit cannot however show the other rabbits in the garden how to hop. Is he really real? Will the Boy keep a warm interest in him, or will the fairies of the woods find a solution and save him?