Don't Mess! Touring

DON’T MESS! Moby Duck on Tour
Runs: approx 1h 25m, one interval
Info at www.moby-duck.co.uk
Review: Rod Dungate, 25 September 2009

Refreshing and unique.
DON’T MESS! is about the 15th show for young people Moby Duck has toured; it may be a small company but it has a big archive! It’s also created a unique set of works all aimed to demonstrate the common elements in our various and diverse cultures.

DON’T MESS! is possibly their best show yet and combines elements of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel with Rajkumari Baingan and Pauchkuina from India (the first translates as Princess Aubergine the second is the name of an eponymous wicked wizard.) A team of three people (storyteller, dancer and musician) tell the tale of a Princess, born in an aubergine to a childless king and queen, who is threatened by a wicked step mother . . . you can see the universality of the tale. Several Hindu gods make appearances to help the story along, much in the way Ancient Greek gods would have a little meddle.

Moby Duck writer and director, Guy Hutchins, has merged the elements of the tale into a most satisfactory whole; and the complete performance takes place in an elegant set with terrific projections too. Devika Rao dances beautifully (both roles of Princess and Step Mother) while Ed Briggs’s score (which he plays live) enhances the whole and gives the performance both an ethnic grounding and a timelessness.

The result of these combined talents is a show that is enchantingly simple on the face of it, yet is underpinned by many accessible layers.

Words: Guy Hutchins
Dance: Chitraleka Bolar
Danced by: Devika Rao
Music: Ed Briggs
Design: Purvin
Projections: Arnim Friess

2009-09-26 16:47:32