"It’s this slight tinge of melancholy, this sense of fun mingled with just a little sorrow, that gives the book much of its poignancy and power…The production nicely captures that tone, though at times the pacing seems too stately and the story theater approach too serious. A little more silliness, a touch more naughtiness would be welcome...Still, there’s much to admire. The production never talks down to children, and it makes a strong case for the importance and delight of imaginative play."
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"With no more than a lone, brief mimetic gesture drawing the shape of long ears, Mr. Roe, a winning, straight-faced, fair-haired actor with a light scruff of a beard, came to be accepted as a stuffed, plush toy, thanks to the graceful and inventive direction in this confidently shaped production...The oohs and aahs that spread through the audience came mostly, though not exclusively, from the cooing children."
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That’s the genius of Purni Morell’s staging for everyone aged four and over: its fiction is gossamer thin, even see-through...But we’re also watching something else, possibly without fully realising it: two young men on their myriad adventures, growing increasingly inseparable...this is a gorgeous slip of a show by anyone’s standards. It’s crafted with real care and precision."
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"This is a show with both a brain and a heart, and one that operates as a sustained metaphor. It completely trusts its audience, and so celebrates the power of every child's imagination as well as the importance of play-acting. It is also a salute to the thrilling transformative possibilities of theatre itself. An inventive, elegant design and the spare clarity of Morell's approach give us all the help we need."
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"One of the many reasons why 'The Velveteen Rabbit' has been a much-loved classic children’s book is the gentle anthropomorphic charm of its titular hero, the shy stuffed toy...The dispiriting thing about Purni Morell’s production is that this charm is almost entirely lacking...Precious alchemy is lost here. Instead Boy and bunny engage in pillow fights which, while superficially amusing, are hardly the point."
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"There are some – very rare – shows that have a confidence and magic about them from the moment they begin. ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’, a beautiful adaptation of Margery Williams’ popular children’s book, is one of those shows. The audience is spell-bound from the off and, as the narrators begin to tell their tale, the spectators giggle and sigh as one. We are swept away by this gentle but powerful story and the young crowd holds its breath, hooked until the very last moment."
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"I saw it at a matinee and the sensation of slipping away from my day job at Parliament to sit in a theatre full of four and five-year-olds was bliss...A wriggling auditorium soon stilled once Paul Lloyd’s narrator started to tell the story of the toy rabbit who sits neglected in the nursery until one day he finds himself in his little master’s arms at bedtime...Their imaginations were hooked by the actors and a few props."
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"The beauty of this production teaches us that it is natural, beautiful and healing, paving the way for something new, though a new that is not unrelated to the past...The play is seamless, it has its own rhythm and regular pulse, like a long visual poem. It combines physical theatre, synchronised movement...Christian Roe’s Rabbit and Ashley Byam’s Boy are in perfect harmony with each other."
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