Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...The setup is simple: an actor, a script, a table with two glasses of water and a vial of an unknown powder, a chair, and a stepladder. Soleimanpour's acerbic and clever exploration of control and free will transforms these rudimentary props and the participants who wield them into a powerful statement about the plight of an individual in an oppressive society."
Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...No one believes the poison bit for a second so there really isn't any tension in White Rabbit Red Rabbit, which is one reason it isn't really a play. It's a comic piece owing a great deal to mid-20th-century absurdist theater, especially from Iron Curtain countries where playwrights often used animal metaphors, or the tedious repetitions of office bureaucracies, as stand-ins for repressive government. Soleimanpour borrows from that playbook, although he avoids the office setting."
Chicago Theatre Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...In spite of its creative and very inventive intention, this is a difficult piece for some theatergoers to appreciate. It provides, of course, a different performance every time this “play” is produced. That’s exciting for both the actor and the audience; and watching a new performer wrestle with this script each Monday night is fascinating. But the performance this writer experienced by JD Caudill simply felt a little too improvisational. It might’ve been a more meaningful evening had the actor stuck more to the script."
The Hawk Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The production leverages the surreal nature of the script to great effect. Since no one in the audience truly knows what is going on, tension is high. The audience is engaged and participating throughout, everyone on edge wondering where the performance will take them. Rabbit takes this and runs with it, creating everything from small scenes to social experiments to serve as introductions and examples in the post-scene monologue. These vignettes are interwoven with the actor's monologues in incredibly satisfying ways. The points being made in the monologues are not only heard, but felt, as the audience has just played an active role in an example of such a concept."
Chicago Theater and Arts - Somewhat Recommended
"...For those interested in a nontraditional performance experience, "White Rabbit Red Rabbit" presented by Interrobang Theatre Project is an enjoyable, thought provoking, perhaps at times, philosophical, leap into experimental theater."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...For their part, Caudill proved a wonderfully personable Master of Ceremonies. Playing themself and the author, as well as several smaller roles along the way, in a purely improvised bit of theatre, Caudill joked and played with the audience, occasionally ad-libbing something and tagging it with "I added that." I'm told that last week's performer, Stephanie Shum, stuck uniformly to the script with no ad-libbing, yet another way that this play can vary. An audience member asked me at the end of the show, "What's the difference here between acting and reading?" and I suspect that this too might make a difference week to week: just how much acting does the performer do while reading the play?"
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...This writer cannot spoil the experience, but can advise anyone who chooses to participate to enter the space with an open mind. Be ready for the unexpected, and to witness a story that this writer feels is relevant and bold, but also full of humor. Soleimanpour asks his audiences to examine themselves and the world around them. No two performances of the play will ever be the same, and in addition to experiencing that once in a lifetime opportunity, you may just learn something about yourself."
