On a set with only a ladder, two glasses of water, a spoon, and a script, an actor enters the stage to discover their role for the night in front of an intimate live audience.

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is a unique theatre experience that an actor can play only once in their lifetime. It comes to Mill Theatre at Dairy Road, Fyshwick later this month for five performances, each featuring a different actor.

Written to see the world when its author could not, Nassim Soleimanpour is forbidden to leave his home country, Iran. Instead of the playwright travelling to theatres and destinations around the globe, in his place is a sealed envelope.  

“You can’t have performed the work. You’re not allowed to have seen the work. You’re not allowed to have researched the work. So, I only know what I’ve been permitted to know,” says P.J. Williams.

Williams has been a constant presence on Canberra stages as an actor, director, and general theatre person for the past few decades. The first of the five actors to bring the script to life at Mill Theatre, Williams is looking forward to taking on the role, which he describes as a novel concept.

“It’s a very unusual play. As an actor, you come to it knowing pretty much as the audience does. It’s a play that relies on immediacy and improvisational skills,” he says.

Williams began his career in improvisation in Sydney, a skill he has carried with him throughout the years, even co-founding Impro Theatre ACT in 2005. However, what makes the play different from improv is that there will be a script, so it will be more about reacting to what is in front of him, he says.

“It is about discovering the work in the moment with the audience … to respond and act honestly, moment to moment.”

He says an actor needs to be confident to shift, change, and interpret on the spot. While improvisation is best known for comedic roles, Williams says the same principles apply to dramatic improvisation. It is about reacting to an offer that is made in the moment, no matter what form it comes in. 

“You respond to the offer that’s in front of you and that may be a word alone in the scripted direction. You have to actually just commit to the moment.”

Following Williams, who opens the short season, are three Canberra-based actors, Stephanie Lekkas, Zsuzsi Soboslay and Elliot Cleaves, and travelling from Sydney, renowned director, writer and producer, Jay James Moody.

Bringing the play to the Mill Theatre is Ezekiel Chalmers, the venue’s technical manager who is stepping into a co-producer role for the first time.

Chalmers says the work is interesting in the way it is presented, with minimal requirements from the actors before the show, cutting down on hundreds of hours of rehearsal times. However, that also presents new challenges an actor wouldn’t have with any other play, admitting any script presented in this way would be a challenge for an actor.

“I’ve picked something that is very audacious and very postmodern to do as my first work and it’s been working really well so far,” he says.

Trust is vital with this play – the audience trusting the actor, the actor trusting the producer – and the Mill Theatre, with its intimate layout, is the perfect place to stage it.

“You’re sitting across from the actor, eye to eye with them … there are no barriers between you and the audience,” he says.

Co-producer Lexi Sekuless says she wants Mill Theatre, which she runs, to be a place where Canberra creatives can have some breathing room and be able to step up and test out a different role. Her vision of the theatre is a place where creatives have courage and trust those around them for support, and that White Rabbit Red Rabbit involves both those things.

While Chalmers has read the script, Sekuless is yet to see what will unfold and is waiting until Williams takes the stage.

“I think that’s important for me to be engaging in the same trust process that we’re asking of all of the actors,” she says.

Putting his trust in the producers and not one to shy away from a challenge, Williams says he thinks people should come along and take a chance on a new work, in a new space.

Curious to see how others interpret the script, he is going to try and catch a show after his performance to see how other actors take on the role.

“I’m humbled to be part of this project. I suspect that there will be moments of humour and there will be moments of drama, and it’s yet to be discovered,” Williams smiles.

Secure your seat for one or more performances of White Rabbit Red Rabbitat Mill Theatre at Dairy Road, 15-16, 18 and 23-24 February; lexisekuless.com/mill-theatre-at-dairy-road

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