Rabbit Resource Pack - Frantic Assembly

DESIGN CONCEPT
a) Modern living - keeping nature at bay
The set was essentially a window through which we can see the forest
or the mountains that surrounded the house. Practically the windows
would encompass the forests, contain them within their parameters.
It would give the impression of the dominance of the city over
nature. It is a reverse representation of what exists in reality; that the
house is of course surrounded by, swallowed by, the forest.
We wanted the set to show this skewed perception. It represents the
views of a world obsessed with material gain, with successful living
within the rat race. This is an image of a world where people escape
from the city on the odd weekend to sit in central heated rooms with
expensive Belgian beers in their hands and look out at their own view
of nature. This is good living. Mastering the modern world through
the week and getting in touch with nature at the weekend! Except
when they leave the comfort of the front room everything starts to
break down. They are out of their depth and Nature takes on a
malevolent role.
We were interested in the concept that the windows were not just
portals looking out to the world. They were also bars that protect the
people inside from the menace of what lurks outside. Once outside in
the forest it doesn’t take Paul long to cast off the remnants of his life
and surrender to the forces of nature. Naked and confused he moves
towards the light of the moon, towards death, or Fate, and away from
the folly of his own existence. Only in these last moments is Nature
embraced. Also Spin sees nothing but danger and mud in the forest.
He mistakes the approaching Driver for a bear and leaves Paul to fend
for himself, running back to the safety of the house (Also to the safety
of his heroin habit - see Drugs vs The Real World 1.2.c).
b) Widescreen
Frantic Assembly shows are nearly always inspired by films that we
have seen whether music videos, or television programmes. With
Rabbit we wanted to show the world outside Paul and Kate’s holiday
home as somehow contained (or constrained) yet still give the sense
of it being epic, of it being enormous. This is not just about what is
shown through the glass of the windows but also the shape of the
windows themselves. It was important to us to present the outside
world through the ‘epic’ shape of a ‘widescreen’ cinema screen and
not present a flatness but instead suggest a rap-around 3-d effect to
the forest outside.
c) Felt Mountain
For the epic outdoor feel we were looking for we looked at
the photography of Ansel Adams but this of course, being
photographs (in monochrome!) of America’s most famous
natural landmarks, was too specific and would place the
Cave’s house as being perched on a mountain in Yosemite
National Park.
We talked about something that would be both beautiful
and imposing. Truly astounding wonders of nature have a
capacity to inspire both joy and fear in the beholder. It is
also quite important for the themes of the play to present
something which has the capacity to turn from one
perceived view into another. (Mountains, rivers, cliff edges
all have this capacity to turn on the beholder and create
unbridled terror). The script talks of a forest and our
finished set might well be that but for the time being we
have spoken about an image that has captured our
imagination and fulfils the criteria set out about above.
The image is a romantic representation of the Matterhorn
taken from the cover of Goldfrapp’s first album Felt
Mountain. This image has become our guideline and any
subsequent image has been judged against its success. This
is the Felt Mountain effect / test.
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