Dressed in crushed red velvet, Victoria Abbott is explosive in her highly theatrical solo show Run Rabbit.

A decade in development, Run Rabbit first emerged a few years ago, winning both Best Theatre Performance at Auckland Fringe and the PAANZ Tour Ready Award in 2019. Now, compelled by recent global and personal shifts, Abbott has revived this “rage bomb of a show” to rejoin the cultural conversation.

Chaotic, unpredictable, and irreverently funny, Run Rabbit shatters the fourth wall and gleefully dances through it. Over 75 minutes, Abbott morphs through characters, personas, and accents, sweeping the audience from the Scottish Highlands to her native New Zealand, through the urban sprawl of Marrickville, Sydney.

Abbott who was highly entertaining in her dual-roles (Mary and Mr Bingley) in Pride and Prejudice now uses Run Rabbit as a dynamic vehicle to showcase her range. Her physicality is fearless: grotesque facial contortions, deep squats, elastic backbends — and, in the role of the titular rabbit, she twitches, hops, and scratches with manic, committed precision. Her performance is raw, hilarious, sometimes unsettling, and always magnetic.

This genre-busting show doesn’t fit into a category – it’s something utterly unique. The show explores powerful themes — oppression, female bodily autonomy, domination, and dehumanisation — with biting wit and raw physicality. Abbott’s only prop, a single carrot that drops from the ceiling, becomes a potent symbol amid the chaos. Julianna Stankiewicz’s lighting design masterfully follows Abbott’s kinetic performance, heightening every shift and transformation. Abbott deconstructs language with precision, twisting metaphors until they snap under the weight of meaning.

Warning Run Rabbit is not a passive show; Abbott directly interacts with the audience and late comers are given extra special attention. However, there is a line and Abbott thoughtfully never crosses the line. She checks in with the audience “is this too far?” Judging by the audience’s laughter and eager participation, it’s a ride they’re more than willing to take.

But what is Run Rabbit about? The theatrical whirlwind is hard to grasp but there is meaning and purpose to the show. Ever talked to someone who jumps from topic to topic and thought, this girl is wild? Run Rabbit feels a bit like that — but in the best way. It’s the mark of a fiercely intelligent mind at work. The show is a chaotic thrill ride but stick with it — when Abbott ties it all together at the end, the payoff is a brilliant, penny-dropping moment.

4 stars.

Presented as a double bill with Melon, Run Rabbit is playing now at Marrickville’s Flight Path Theatre until 31 May 2025.

For tickets visit Flight Path Theatre