THEATRE: RABBIT

BY SOPHIE TARR

Brendan Cowell directs this stunning debut from British playwright Nina Raine. It’s Bella’s 29th birthday, and she’s celebrating with typical Gen Y hedonism: a night out with mates, a glass or five of wine, and exchanges that grow increasingly barbed as the night goes on. The conversation is blush-worthy (Cornetto-shaped appendages, anyone’) but the five characters’ frankness when it comes to sex and money belies a reluctance to share intimate details of a weightier sort.

What Bella (Alison Bell) has told only one of her friends, you see, is that her father is dying. The inevitable tension between Bella’s decision to avoid her father and her guilt at doing so is the real meat of this play. Scenes of bar-side debauchery are interspersed with Bella’s memories of her father, and although contrived, these interludes lend depth to what might otherwise feel like nothing more than the neurotic antics of a bunch of late twenty-somethings.

Bell and her cohorts, notably Emily and Richard, are so engaging and warm that it’s easy to be drawn into their world ‘ during a scene in which the characters play a game of charades, one member of the audience was so swept up she started calling out guesses.

At turns funny and moving, Rabbit is at once a rambunctious battle of the sexes and an indictment of a generation trying very hard indeed not to have to deal with the prospect of growing up and growing old.

Until January 18. Sydney Theatre, Wharf 1, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay. Tickets: $29-$77, 9250 1777 or www.sydneytheatre.com