Double Bill: Run Rabbit & Melon

As the weather worsened at Flight Path Theatre on opening night, the audience numbers declined. But the excitement of these two one-woman shows grew. Run Rabbit was excellently presented by New Zealander Victoria Abbott, the playwright herself, dressed in a flaming red, crushed velvet cat/rabbit suit. And Melon was brilliantly spot on, with all Perth features booming, including a performance by Amber Gilmour that would have stopped many a West Australian clock. 

From the Far East and Far West comes this Double Bill into wet, wet Sydney. Ms Abbott claims that she had a relative 680 years ago called Black Agnes, and who are we to doubt it? Dressed to kill, she rips through the 5-month siege of his Scottish castle while opening many sidelines with members of the audience.

She has a large sign which reads ‘SAY IT’S CAROL SINGERS’ and many a smaller message. Never outstaying her welcome, she butts in on her audience, taking them with her on a journey into her past. She’s often the sleek rabbit of the title, most interested in licking her body.

Her Scottish accent is spot on, as is the frequent visits to her New Zealand heritage. She effectively utilises the entire stage and is ever watchful of her audience.

But it’s an entirely different thing for Play Two after the break. The new setup has been thorough: here is another world, of cheapo flats and drugs. Nelson Fannon takes credit for the down-market setting and the props, including the melon of the title, which is smashed and scattered.

Into this frenzied world comes Amber Gilmour as Mal, a troubled Perth girl, hooked on her close friendship with Abby. As Abby becomes more enmeshed with her dealer/boyfriend Mitch, Mal slips in beside her friend and they both speed towards disaster.

With brilliant attention to the milestones on her descent, Amber Gilmour presents the entire person as she travels fast downstream. ‘I don’t want to die,’ she says, ‘I just don’t want to be me.’ The small audience agreed with the proposition and greatly showed their appreciation at the end.

The writer Ella Randle displayed a real knowledge of entrapment by drugs and, with the assistance of Co-Director Samuel Ireland, lays the whole sorry saga before us. The sound design by Keely Maloney is fine.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Patrick Phillips.