THE VELVETEEN RABBIT at the LYRIC THEATRE, BELFAST on the 15th of March 2025

 

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT at the LYRIC THEATRE, BELFAST on the 15th of March 2025

Darren Franklin as Jack in the Box

The show has characters, mostly toys like the Jack in the Box (who happens to be the narrator too), Robbo the robot woman, the skin horse and the velveteen rabbit.   Velveteen is a kind of cheaper, inferior form of velvet not normally seen in the UK but possibly more popular in the US where the novel by Margery Williams published in 1922, first had success.  Williams was a British writer who appealed to American sensibilities. 


Rosie Barrie as Robbo


The theme of the play is ‘nobody’s real’.  The songs are repeated on a singalong script broadcast in the theatre.  They are energetic and well performed, catchy, tuneful and accessible.  The songs have been brilliantly re-imagined by Jan Carson and Duke Special.  The deeper meaning of the play is that when a toy is really loved it becomes real.  The décor was bright, colourful and accessible. 

Tara Wilkes as the wee man


Its only when the velveteen rabbit meets real rabbits that it realises the gap between being a toy and being real and yearns for something more.  Toy Story and Pinocchio seem cheerful antecedents, even though Pinocchio is a wooden doll who yearns to be a real boy, making its plight even sadder.   Ultimately, a metamorphosis occurs, and the velveteen rabbit becomes real, somehow confounding our expectations.  But it is all done using the magic of theatre.  The performers are all excellent, Darren Franklin is great as Jack, as is Rosie Barrie as Robbo.

Alison Harding as the Skin Horse


Paul Murphy, Lyric Theatre, Belfast



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