Who is performing, and when
This is the only decision that really matters when booking. Every Monday brings a different actor, and the announced line-up for the remainder of the run is below.
Earlier performances this season featured Munya Chawawa, Ginger Johnson, David Harewood and Mel Giedroyc, and the season opened on 8 June with Lucian Msamati. At the time of writing, some dates were already showing no availability, so check the booking calendar before settling on a particular actor.
What actually happens on the night
The stage holds almost nothing: a table, a couple of glasses of water, a stepladder, and a sealed envelope. The performer is introduced, opens the envelope, and begins reading. Everything after that is determined by the text and by how the actor chooses to respond to it in real time. Audience members are invited into the piece — sometimes on stage, sometimes asked to supply an object or an answer. Volunteers tend to be drawn from the front rows.
Why the performers agree to it
Actors spend their working lives preparing. This asks them to give that up entirely: no script in advance, no research, no rehearsal, no director's shaping, no second night to fix what went wrong. It is a one-off act of professional exposure, and that is precisely why so many well-known performers have said yes to it over fifteen years.
The play and its author
Nassim Soleimanpour
Soleimanpour is an Iranian playwright who wrote White Rabbit Red Rabbit in 2010. Having declined compulsory military service, he was refused a passport and could not leave the country. Rather than write about confinement, he wrote something that would move on his behalf: a script that needed no set, no director and no touring company, and could therefore be performed anywhere by anyone willing to open the envelope. The play premiered in 2011 and has since been translated into more than 30 languages and performed over 3,000 times.
The rabbits
The title is not decorative. The play builds an extended allegory around rabbits, drawing on a well-known behavioural experiment about how a group learns to enforce a rule long after anyone remembers why the rule exists. Soleimanpour uses it to think about obedience, inherited fear, and the way people police each other without needing to be told to. It is delivered lightly, which is what makes it land.
Author present, author absent
The other subject of the play is the play itself. Soleimanpour writes directly to the actor and to the audience, from a past he cannot leave and toward a room he cannot see. The effect is a kind of delayed presence — the writer speaking through a stranger's mouth, years later, in a country he had never been to when he wrote the words. Several London critics have identified this as the piece's real emotional core, rather than the political allegory.
Fifteen years on
Soleimanpour has since been able to travel and has written further work in the same vein, including pieces built around performers encountering material live. This Duchess season marks the play's fifteenth anniversary. What has kept it in repertory is not novelty — the format was novel in 2011 and is now well known — but the fact that the questions it raises about obedience and complicity have not become less relevant.
Where it has played in London
The play has appeared in London several times, including a run at @sohoplace and a Duchess Theatre season in 2025. The current anniversary season began at the Duchess in June 2026 and continues on Mondays through to 2 November.
Performance schedule
- Performances: Mondays only, 7:30pm
- Currently booking: 3 August – 2 November 2026
- Running time: Approximately 60–70 minutes, no interval
- No matinees and no performances on any other day of the week
Because the Duchess houses The Play That Goes Wrong for the rest of the week, White Rabbit Red Rabbit uses the traditional Monday dark night. If a Monday does not work for you, there is no alternative date.
Booking for a specific performer
Read this before you book if you are choosing your night by who is appearing. The producers programme named artists in good faith and say cancellations are rare, but if circumstances force a change of performer, no refunds or exchanges are offered. A full refund applies only if a performance is cancelled entirely. In practice, the safest approach is to pick a night that appeals for its own sake and treat the announced performer as a strong likelihood rather than a guarantee.
Age guidance and content
Recommended for ages 14 and above.
The producers state that the production contains themes some audiences may find unsettling, and publish a detailed content warning document. If you are booking for a younger or more sensitive audience member, it is worth reading that in advance. There is also audience participation, and while nobody is compelled to take part, anyone strongly averse to being singled out should avoid the front row.
Creative team
- Writer: Nassim Soleimanpour
- Performer: A different actor at every performance
- Director: None — by design, no performance is directed
The production is presented in association with Soleimanpour's long-standing collaborators, who host and frame each evening. There is no conventional creative team in the usual sense: no set design to speak of, no choreography, and no staging plan, because none of these things can be rehearsed with an actor who has not read the script.
Getting there
- Tube: Covent Garden (Piccadilly) — 5 min walk
- Alternative: Temple (Circle, District), Charing Cross, Holborn
- Bus: Routes 6, 11, 13, 15 and 23
- Parking: Drury Lane car park
About the Duchess Theatre
The Duchess opened on 25 November 1929 and is the smallest West End theatre with a proscenium arch, seating 494 across two levels. Designed by Ewen Barr, it was built with the stalls below street level to avoid blocking daylight to neighbouring buildings under the ancient lights rule — which is why you descend rather than climb to the best seats. It is Grade II listed and part of the Nimax Theatres group. It also holds the record for the shortest run in West End history: in 1930, The Intimate Revue closed without finishing its first performance.
Accessibility
The Duchess Theatre provides step-free access to the Dress Circle via a ramped entrance on Catherine Street, with designated wheelchair spaces, an infrared hearing enhancement system and accessible toilet facilities. Because the stalls sit below street level, that level involves stairs. Contact the box office in advance to arrange access seating and to discuss the audience participation element if that is a consideration.
