“Tasty Little Rabbit” reviewed

There’s a line in Tom Jacobson’s new play, Tasty Little Rabbit, which reads, “Today’s blasphemy is tomorrow’s orthodoxy.” Five words, but they’re imbued with so much historical truth. Almost every attempt to try something new in an art form meets immediate anger and resistance. The premiere in 1913 of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring caused a riot, Dylan “going electric” elicited boos and a cry of “Judas!” and Edward Bond’s 1965 play Saved was not only censored but also all the participants were prosecuted and fined. The specific subject of Jacobson’s literate and moving play are some photographs taken in 1897, but its scope is much greater than that, exploring art and love and the tragedy of being ahead of one’s time. The world premiere production at Moving Arts is smart, witty and features a brilliantly talented cast.

In 1936 Taormina in Sicily, two Fascist officers – local official Cesare (Robert Mammana) and a higher-ranking officer from Rome, Francesco (Rob Nagle) – are questioning local photographer Pancrazio (Massi Pregoni) about a series of photographs of naked young men dating back the past forty years that the Mussolini government considers possibly obscene. While being questioned, Pancrazio discusses how in 1897 he was a model for some of these photos, taken by Wilhelm (Mammana), a German expatriate. He recalls the visit of a guest, the British poet Sebastian Melmoth (Nagle), who wants photos of Pancrazio in elaborate recreations of literature and mythology. At first the young man is irritated with the enthusiasms of the poet, but as time passes, he and Wilhelm are both changed by the man’s charismatic but troubled presence.

Mammana is very good as the repressive fascist Cesare, but he’s quietly terrific as photographer Wilhelm, who isn’t as loud a personality as the other two characters but is a decent man who clearly feels things very deeply. Mammana also has a lot of fun in a scene in which he gets to play a vampire. Pregoni successfully portrays multiple levels of detail in his fine performance as the young Pancrazio – flirty, angry, confused and regretful – but he’s slightly less convincing as the older version of the character. Nagle is quite effective as Francesco, the force of his talent supplementing the somewhat underwritten role, but he’s superb as Melmoth. He offers a tour de force performance as the larger-than-life poet, who shifts seamlessly from scholarly displays of erudition to artistic flashes of poetic beauty, from shyly seductive moments to melancholic pronouncements of his own doom. This role reminds me of Nagle’s excellent 2019 performance in The Judas Kiss, which is a very high compliment.

Director George Bamber gets outstanding work from his cast and excels at keeping this structurally tricky play (it jumps back and forth between time not infrequently) clear and well-paced. This production benefits greatly from Mark Mendelson’s rustic Sicilian village set, Dan Weingarten’s dynamic lighting (which creates time jumps, sudden points of focus and photography effects), John Zalewski’s spare but perfectly judged sound design and Nicholas Santiago’s expert projection design.

Jacobson’s writing is sharp, layered and pointed – although this play tells a true historical tragedy, our own time isn’t seeming especially safe these days. There is plenty of humor in his script, though, as in a line in which Melmoth chides Wilhelm on the aged condition of his costumes: “So many of your costumes look like you came to Sicily with Odysseus.” My only quibble with the play is that the framing story seems less effective than the main storyline; I wanted to know a bit more about Cesare and especially Francesco.

Tasty Little Rabbit is a beautifully wrought jewel box of a play filled with fantastic acting, bright and powerful writing, and it’s given a lovely production by Moving Arts.

Tasty Little Rabbit is presented by and at Moving Arts in Atwater Village and plays through June 6, 2025.

Tickets are available at https://movingarts.org/project/tasty-little-rabbit/