A Joy Easter Egg Hunt

Rabbits in their Pockets

What about a Conjuror with rabbits in his pockets?
What about a Rocket Man who’s always making rockets?
Oh, there’s such a lot of things to do and such a lot to be
That there’s always lots of cherries on my little cherry tree!

– A.A. Milne

Kiimberly Dixon-Mays’ RABBITS IN THEIR POCKETS, at the Lifeline Theatre, is a ode to Black joy and creation that will lift your spirit and warm your heart. RABBITS is a poignant tale of two sisters wrestling with their choices and dreaming of their futures. Standing on folklore and sprinkled with magic, Lifeline Theatre’s world premiere production of Dixon-Mays’ original script is a deeply moving, delightfully entertaining event you don’t want to miss.

Dixon-Mays draws on the oral traditions of Caribbean, African and African-American cultures. Skillfully interweaving threads of myth and legend, Dixon-Mays script creates a world that is ours, just seen through a different lens. In the RABBITS world we are witnesses to a modern fable, while the characters unknowingly communicate with forces they do not fully comprehend at a crossroads in their lives. In this world technology is also able to expand beyond our own; it might even be possible to capture joy.

Here rabbits – whether pocketed or Br’er – are a symbol of Black survival through ‘original technology’; the skill to succeed by wit, adaptation and improvisation. The play is a new tale in the tradition of the clever, quick-thinking Br’er Rabbit, who always manages to outsmart Br’er Fox and escape the trap. Dixon-Mays’ world also loops in the hopeful symbolism of cherries, and their folk connection to foretelling what we will be. These themes are spun together, guiding the sisters’ story. The magic is brought to life under the skillful direction of Christopher Wayland.

We enter this world through the family home of sisters Harley (Simmery Branch) and Ash (LaKecia Harris). The scene, designed by Shokie Tseumah, is the modest main room of the home – an open, somehow neutral environment that is purposefully ever-present even when distinct areas are used to convey other locations. At the heart of the set is a tool room, a physical legacy of skills the sisters inherited from their father, and which they access to reminisce and rebuild (literally and figuratively). The set includes an upper deck that serves a special symbolic purpose.

Sisters Harley and Ash could not be more different. One is all about improvisation, laughter and not being attached to outcomes. The other is a sharp, scientific mind who must focus on ways to keep going. What they share is the complicated striving for a joyous, meaningful life in spite of the harsh realities of our society. The actors completely embody this ‘odd couple’ dynamic, manifesting love and friction that are fully believable as the result of a lifetime of family life, and growth in opposite directions.

Both Branch (Harley) and Harris (Ash) have gorgeously heart-opening moments that made the audience hold our breath. When Ash’s tough exterior cracks, Harris bursts into touching vulnerability, revealing the depths of Ash’s struggles in the face of loss and a world so hostile to Black joy. Branch gives us a hard-hitting revelation, transforming Harley’s flitting, frivolous-seeming persona to illuminate the heavy burden she carries. With Branch’s skill the scene is thick with Harley’s anger and sorrow, and it changes how we see Harley and her journey.

Harley is the soul of the story, and Branch lives her vividly full of an enthusiastic joie de vivre that makes her moments of despair all that more potent. Branch’s Harley makes us feel the magic in the air as she reaches to pluck the juiciest cherry from the tree. Harley knows that on any coin-toss she is right 100% of the time until it lands, and Branch plays her optimistic openness so purely we are compelled to love her. In the scenes where she is giving voice to the most hopeful musings Branch is almost otherworldly. When she explodes into anger Branch makes it brutally real, letting us feel the pit that has opened inside Harley.

In contrast Ash has built herself out of scar tissue – running from close connections and thriving under duress. Harris portrays her as defensive and barricaded but with such bright sparks of hope that her spirit shines through the walls. Ash senses magic too, but her clinical intellect filters it into a science that is beyond our reality. Harris skillfully carries us into Ash’s logical world where everything is calm, mature and detached – until Ash is overwhelmed with a suppressed emotion.

Felisa McNeal (Inola) steals the spotlight from scene one, when she dimples and twinkles her eyes at the audience, somehow unnoticed by sisters. Is Inola a benign benefactor or a pot-stirrer bent on hunting down the weak spots and sparking up a destructive drama with her meddling? Dixon-Mays conjures a particularly mesmerizing scene that allows McNeal to shine as Inola plays a scene-within-a-scene, and McNeal takes full advantage of the moments available.

Teddy (Marcus D. Moore), a friend of Harley, is a delightful interloper – hopping in and out of the sisters’ presence, bringing laughter, a natural earnestness, and a predilection for a hysterically bad Jamaican accent.

There are diamonds of hope, laughter and dramatic conflict studding Dixon-Mays’ script, and Walter’s direction shows them in their most brilliant light. All the characters have golden comedic moments and they hit every laugh dead on. The sisters’ relationship includes more than a little eye-rolling, side-eyeing, and dry or sarcastic quips that bring consistent levity while feeling like perfectly natural sibling sparring as they find their way forward.

To brave a different path in life sometimes we need the support of loved ones. Sometimes we need to outsmart the fox to unstick ourselves from a mound of expectations. With a little improvisation we might just find ourselves landing the sweet briar patch of home, ready to bound off into the next joyous adventure. Rabbits in Their Pockets is a gift of joy you will want to experience.

Highly Recommend.

Reviewed by Soleil Rodrigue

Rabbits in Their Pockets runs Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through October 5. All shows at the Rogers Park stage, Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are $25 to $45 and may be purchased online at lifelinetheatre.com

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com