Review: Bunny

Bunny by Jack Thorne is a monologue from Katie, a girl who is proud of her ‘ass-levels’, has a 24 year old black boyfriend called Abe, and whose friends all left at 10.30pm on her 18th birthday because there was a bad snack-to-booze ratio.

Emma D’Arcy’s Katie is, to say the least, incredibly charming. From the way she raises her upper lip, scratches her arm, or uses her whole mouth to smile – the innocently self-conscious movement helps to visually build the picture of this harmless yet ultimately intriguing character.

Even when directing some brazen dancing at the audience member brave enough to sit in the front row, it is neither kitsch, nor gimmicky, just the unabashed confidence of a girl who is both unaware but “knew what [she] was doing”.

Without wishing to trivialise, the narrative itself is familiar enough (young girl accidentally falls into a sticky situation with some naughty boys) and the teenage problems familiar enough (sex, bodies, and aspiration) for the writing to feel natural. But, team this with the fact that the performance steers clear of melodrama whilst nonetheless building tension, and it becomes absolutely certain that this production is on to a winner.

We are thrown into discomfort one second and empathy the next, and, in a way that is perhaps fitting for anyone delivering a monologue, Katie confesses to the audience that she does indeed “think too much”. This is a reflection though, that we momentarily resent, only because we are so grateful to her for sharing all her thoughts.

The animations from Joel Macpherson are unobtrusive and the litter on the ground, presumably denoting the ‘gritty’ streets of Luton with its class and racial tensions, helps to seat the city setting on the line between implicit and unambiguous, to add just enough context to Katie’s story without it washing out any suspense in the plot.

What it boils down to is that this is a production that deserves a full house every night – seize these last opportunities to see it.

Bunny is on until the 16th February at the Burton Taylor Studio, at 9.30pm; £6/5