The Rabbits

Midway through the Brisbane opening of The Rabbits the action was interrupted by a fire-alarm. Was it a bushfire alert within the story or was it real? The audience were confused as were the performers on stage until it became clear this was no dramatic effect but the real thing. The show was halted, the curtain lowered, and after a ten-minute break the show commenced again. It was certainly a dramatic and theatrical opening to one of the most talked about operas of recent times.

Kate Miller-Heidke was triumphantly returning to her home-state to reveal her much-applauded and much-praised baby, an allegorical tale of colonisation based on John Marsden’s award-winning book and Shaun Tan’s illustrations. The marsupials are the indigenous inhabitants of the land, which is colonised by the rabbits who do what every colonist has ever done, takeover destroying everything in their path. The allusions to Australia and our conflicted past are always obvious.

Miller-Heidke’s score is a clever mix of Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche, folk-song, musical theatre and pop. Like a queen she reigns over it all at the top of an anthill-like structure as a bird, emitting piercingly-shrill and vocally impressive sounds. Hollie Andrew, Jessica Hitchcock and Lisa Maza, carrying their young, encapsulate the female marsupials with total conviction, ably assisted by their male counterparts Marcus Corowa and David Leha. The sequence when their off-spring are taken from them is powerful theatre. Anguish and pain have never been so gut-wrenching.

The invading rabbits who keep arriving on boat after boat, have all the pomp of traditional Gilbert and Sullivan which is exemplified by Robert Mitchell’s Captain, Simon Meadows’ Lieutenant, Nicholas Jones’ Society Rabbit, Christopher Hillier’s Convict, and Kanen Breen’s Scientist. The latter’s counter-tenor is one of the standout voices of the production.

Gabriela Tylesova’s costumes are strikingly imaginative, a wide-hipped Bilby-type of animal suit for the marsupials, with an exaggerated comical uniform with wide beak and long ears for the rabbits. Trent Suidgeest’s lighting design is superb ,washing the stage with colours of every hue. The orchestra, who at one time are part of the action, show incredible versatility under leader Isaac Hayward, whilst director John Sheedy has pulled it all together with an expert eye.

A thousand bravos to Miller-Heidke, Katz, Sheedy, Opera Australia and Barking Gecko for creating such an original and groundbreaking work.

Peter Pinne

Photographer: Jon Green.