Silly 'Rabbit' is for kids

The story of The Velveteen Rabbit, Yale Children's Theater's (YCT) current show, is truly compelling: a child's toy, the Velveteen Rabbit, desires with all its heart to become real, a feat it accomplishes by sacrificing itself to help a young boy survive scarlet fever. After finding the disease-ridden stuffed animal in the trash, a magical fairy transforms the toy into a real, live rabbit, and the newly organic bunny joins its brethren scurrying about the forest. At best, the story is magical and moving, but though the YCT show is charming, it never quite seems to reach the magic of its tale.

LIZ ARCHIBALD/YH "Whoa, I haven't seen people wearing laundry baskets since Burning Man, man!"

Maybe The Velveteen Rabbit plays differently in front of an audience of spellbound kids, but the show seems rather stilted. It almost achieves the lofty goal of transforming its actors and staging into magic and fantasy, but awkwardly loses itself in periodic stumbles. Some scenes feel far too short, while others are far too long. Some miss the mark of fantasy and seem more like bad acid trips: when the child is sick, we hear conga drums as doctors prance around the kid's bed in a sort of tribal dance. One extra colored light, a little more attention to choreography, or maybe some narration, and this scene could be really effective within the show. As is, it comes across as confusing and odd.

Yet the show's strength resides in the costumes and characters, some of which are quite enchanting, though simple. The Velveteen Rabbit's costume consists of L.L. Bean full-body lounge sack pajamas, a set of fuzzy bunny ears, and some nose and whisker makeup. The tugboat, one of the other toys in the nursery, wears a cardboard boat around her rain slicker-clad torso. These nursery toys are a mixed bag—some, like the toy soldier, come alive, while others fall flat. The live rabbits that meet the Velveteen Rabbit capture the spirit of fantasy quite well as they kick and bounce in their very basic costumes.

The YCT is not about elaborate set design and heavy production—it's about simplicity, fun, and imagination. As the rocking horse says, "Once you're real, you can never be ugly," and in its simplicity, The Velveteen Rabbit certainly keeps it real.

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