SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2025
BCF 25: The Velveteen Rabbit
Production Photo: Carrie Davenport
It is a dreamy and nightmarish world, an unsafe "safety zone", which lies at the core of Jan Carson and Peter "Duke Special" Wilson's arrestingly vibrant and observant adaptation of Margery Williams' children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit – the dark heart of an enduring story eloquently and appropriately "tuned up" and "lightened up" for the Young At Art Belfast Children's Festival audience. Directed by Janice Kernoghan-Reid, the Replay Theatre Company production excels at retaining and expanding the essence of Williams' work in a 1980s Belfast setting, with the universality of the themes and the appealing elements of the story stretched out and enhanced to fascinating, appealing and surprising levels.
Originally published in the early 1920s, Williams' story of a boy's love for a stuffed toy rabbit and the sentient rabbit's innate desire to become "real", whatever that term eventually means for the rabbit, has to these eyes attained a timelessness as a tale of learning to love and bond in the ever-changing but ever-familiar background of development in tastes and mechanics. Age and technology may forever advance but the repeated challenges of any of the emotional cycles that rise and fall through attachment and belonging remain intact - challenges of discovery and preservation within the confines of a protective "world" created to shelter oneself from the inevitability of pain.
Production Photo: Carrie Davenport
This is the world we see in Carson and Wilson's The Velveteen Rabbit, rather spectacularly designed and costumed by Diana Ennis on a structure that takes full advantage of the Lyric Theatre's potential for conveying three-dimensional space. We get a real sense of a beautifully blue sky, a mysterious and adventurous forest, and the cluttered appearance but imaginative potential in the toy box and bookcase of a child's bedroom. The imagination generally comes alive in the human-sized equivalent of toys such as Robbo the Robot (Rosie Barry), a Jack-In-The-Box (Darren Franklin) and our Rabbit hero (Jack Watson) - toys of different construction, different purpose and differing mindsets on a sliding scale of cynicism to idealism. It takes, as those familiar with the source material may know, the wisdom of the Skin Horse (Allison Harding) to enhance the Rabbit's optimism - an optimism that will be very much needed and valued when the boy of this adaptation, the Wee Man (Tara Wilkes) decides that the Rabbit is both his favourite toy and "real", thus setting the drama in motion. Drama that may well become especially dramatic when the Rabbit meets rabbits in the wild (Harding, again, and Reuben Browne).
The 1980s close-to-home background really is on point for the nature of this show – the wonder of childhood, the pride in nostalgia and the realities "in between" which seem to be commonplace when we reflect on that complicated decade all find their way through amidst a strong narrative, regular bursts of laughter, delightfully comic performances and countless catchy tunes. It's an introduction, albeit a tasteful and delicate one, to the pleasure in enjoying any moment at any age along with the fear of obsolescence that may linger throughout and afterwards - an instance where the "good" in "good as new" isn't always good, and where connection transcending aesthetics brings both rewards and a price. It's a tantalising, thorough depiction and definition of a way of life – and that's what makes The Velveteen Rabbit something to truly treasure.
Simon Fallaha
The Velveteen Rabbit opened as part of the Young at Art Belfast Children's Festival 2025 (#BCF25) and runs on the main stage at Belfast's Lyric Theatre until Sunday March 30. For more information, and tickets, click here.