Jon Bennett: It’s Rabbit Night!!! – Adelaide Fringe Review

Tuxedo Cat @ Coffee Pot, Fri Feb 20 Jon Bennett’s It’s Rabbit Night!!! s a joyous, bonkers, whole venue experience. The ascent to his venue is a steep staircase which is narrow and vertiginous, then you go through the antechamber (getting warmer), through a vestibule, (getting warmer still) and then into a tall red room with red drapes where it is HOT! You feel very far from reality, even if it is just above the even-duller end of Rundle Mall. David Lynch would love it. There’s a high energy start, music pumping, Bennett in a fluffy rabbit suit on a re-bounder and the audience on their feet bobbing along to the bunny beat. There are projections of cute rabbits, baby rabbits, animated rabbits. But all is not right. Without giving too much away, Bennett began by berating the audience for not arriving correctly for his departure from storytelling – a rabbit based club night. His distress and frustration at not being able to perform the show as it should be got everyone on side whilst he seemed to make the best of a bad situation, imploring us not to review this show as it’s not the one he planned to do. And of course it is a fabulous example of his mesmerising storytelling, but with more levity and less intensity than his previous highly personal shows. There are interruptions to the night including a beautifully choreographed stage invasion by two sinister leather puppets and five puppeteers, increasing his fretfulness about his ‘ruined’ show. There’s something of the Woody Allen about his self-deprecating complaining that also lets you know just how bloody well he’s actually doing. Nobody has ever been more miserable in a threesome! Enjoyable, and slightly disorientating… a complex and silly multi-layered show. See it! Julia Chamberlain Jon Bennett: It’s Rabbit Night!!! continues at Tuxedo Cat @ Coffee Pot until Sun Mar 1. Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 or adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix. Click HERE to purchase your tickets.