During their acclaimed production of As You Like It two years ago, the Royal Shakespeare Company had an actor skin and behead a dead rabbit on stage, reportedly getting big laughs and applause from Brits who were thrilled to watch him tossing rabbit pieces into a bucket. Show biz! But while those kinds of gross-out theatrics may tickle the punters across the pond, in America rabbit advocates are up in arms about the production, which opens tonight in a full-size replica of their theater in Stratford-upon-Avon, assembled in the Park Avenue Armory's massive Drill Hall.
The British production used three dead rabbits a day, provided by a farm. Here in NYC, they planned to source the rabbits from a company that provides food for animals such as snakes. But animal rights activists and rabbit lovers started a petition to stop them, and they have succeeded in pressuring the company to cut the rabbits from the scene, which, as written by Shakespeare, does not say anything about rabbit skinning in the stage directions. "We were anxious to make sure that we weren't responsible ourselves for decreasing the rapidly increasing rabbit population," RSC artistic director Michael Boyd snidely tells the Wall Street Journal.
The American Humane Association says there is no organization in charge of protecting the safety of animals in theater, where they are used infrequently. But a spokesman believes that had the RSC gone through with dead rabbit scene, they would not have violated their guidelines, which prohibit the harming of animals "for the express purpose of entertainment." In a statement posted in the comments section of the Journal, the RSC says that in England, "the RSPCA (UK equivalent of the ASPCA) were satisfied that the rabbits used in the British performances were sourced responsibly and killed humanely. It has not been possible to source rabbits in the same way in New York."
Boyd had also wanted to fully use the rabbits by serving them as snacks after the show. "I wanted to serve them up in the green room afterwards," he tells the Journal "but we weren't allowed." This is why we can't have nice things. So now no rabbits will get famous or eaten posthumously, and a local dead rabbit purveyor has lost some good business! We hope you're happy, rabbit apologists—and don't come crying to us when The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog comes for you in the night.
