This October, County Stage invites Prince Edward County audiences to experience one of contemporary theatre’s most unusual and exhilarating theatrical experiments with three one-night-only performances of Nassim Soleimanpour’s internationally acclaimed White Rabbit Red Rabbit.

The premise is deceptively simple.

A sealed envelope.

A different performer each night.

No rehearsal. No director. No safety net.

At each performance, an actor walks onto the stage having never read the play they are about to perform. They have been instructed not to research the script, not to prepare, and simply to show up. Waiting for them is a sealed envelope containing Soleimanpour’s play.

The actor opens it in front of the audience and, from that moment forward, the performer and audience discover what happens together.

County Stage will present White Rabbit Red Rabbit at The Andrew in Picton on three consecutive Thursdays, each featuring a different performer:

October 9: Mira Skye Sorbara Korngold

October 16: Carolyn Taylor

October 23: Paul Snepsts

With no prior staging and no opportunity to rehearse what comes next, each performance unfolds in a state of vibrant, exhilarating tension. Funny, mischievous, provocative, and at times deeply unsettling, White Rabbit Red Rabbit explores questions of obedience, power, freedom, choice, and collective responsibility while continually shifting the relationship between playwright, performer, and audience.

Written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour while he was unable to leave his country, the play became a way for his words to travel where he could not: a long-distance dialogue between the author, a performer he has never met, and an audience gathered somewhere in the world.

Since its premiere in 2011, White Rabbit Red Rabbit has become one of the most widely travelled plays in contemporary theatre. It has been translated into more than 30 languages and performed more than 3,000 times around the world, with performers including John Hurt, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Stephen Rea and Dominic West.

FringeReview called the work “a stunning piece of theatre, thought-provoking and morally unsettling,” while the New Zealand Herald described it as “wildly unpredictable and completely unforgettable.”

For County Stage Artistic Director Heather Braaten, the unpredictability of the work is exactly what makes presenting three performances so exciting.

“Live theatre is already about sharing something that can only happen in that particular room, with that particular audience, on that particular night. White Rabbit Red Rabbit takes that idea even further. Mira, Carolyn, and Paul will each meet this play for the very first time in front of us. Their instincts, their humour, their curiosity, and their relationship with the audience will shape what happens. You could attend all three performances and see the same script, but you will absolutely not see the same show.”

Ticket information is available through County Stage countystage.ca.

OCTOBER 9: MIRA SKYE SORBARA KORNGOLD

Mira Skye Sorbara Korngold is a Canadian-born actress working across theatre, film, and television in Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Concordia University and trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. Mira has starred in several off-Broadway performances including Gypsy and Dolores. On screen, she has appeared in NBC’s Brilliant Minds, Devil In Disguise, CBS’s Boston Blue, Amazon Prime’s Cross, and numerous short films. She also brings an extensive background in dance, movement, and vocal training to her work.

OCTOBER 16: CAROLYN TAYLOR

Carolyn Taylor is an award-winning comedian, actor, writer, and showrunner. She is one of the creators, executive producers, and stars of the acclaimed Baroness von Sketch Show on CBC and IFC, which received 20 Canadian Screen Awards during its run. Taylor later created and starred in the hit figure-skating docu-comedy I Have Nothing for Crave, earning a 2024 Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Lead Performer in a Comedy. Her credits also include Workin’ Moms, Ghosts, Wayward, Plan B, Children Ruin Everything, and Black Mirror. She honed her skills in improvisation and social satire as a mainstage performer at The Second City in Toronto.

OCTOBER 23: PAUL SNEPSTS

Paul Snepsts has spent more than 20 years writing and performing comedy while creating opportunities for Canadian comedy artists. He is the creator and executive director of The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival and the creator of Comedy Country, bringing live comedy and homegrown talent to stages throughout Prince Edward County. He has toured Canada and the United States as a sketch performer, performed improv with Bad Dog Theatre and local ensemble Taste That, and earned a Gemini Award for Best Comedic Ensemble for Three Chords from the Truth. Locally, he is a writer and performer with The County Roundup and the producer and host of the award-winning The Sneptic Tank on 99.3 County FM.