“In a nameless city deluged by a continuous rain… three rabbits live with a fearful mystery.”
(WARNING: David Lynch's short film, Rabbits, has been used in experiments to create unease in voluntary participants. If you suffer from any type of psychological illness, neurosis, anxiety, or depression, I believe I am not speaking in superlatives when I advise you to skip this one.)
In 2002, director David Lynch released a short 42 minute film entitled Rabbits. The actors are played by Scott Coffey, Laura Elena Harring, and Naomi Watts while dressed in cheap rabbit fur suits. Lynch claims the film is actually a comedic parody of a sitcom. Really?
The stage is a simple setting of a living room with three actors whose dialogue is occasionally interrupted by the laughter of an unseen audience and ominous thunder that blurs the screen. However, the background music, the nonsensical, non sequitur dialogue, the occasional appearance of a demonic rabbit head and a large torch add an air of surrealism to an already disquieting performance.
The result is a brilliant, if nightmarish film that attracts as much as it repels. If you google the name of the film along with the director, you will discover a plethora of websites attempting to explain the film's meaning and though some do a more credible job than others, I believe that searching for meaning in Rabbits is a fool's errand, much like trying to find ultimate meaning in Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem, The Hunting of the Snark.
Below is a link to the YouTube video of the performance. It is divided into about 8 acts with three of them being poetic monologues. Enjoy. If you can.
Uh, yeah. Given what I've heard about Lynch and his love of mind games, I think I'll give this one a pass.
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