"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 ... a most satisfactory whole; and the complete performance takes place in an elegant set with terrific projections ..."
Bookers: This show is still available for booking. For more info read the bookers page
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Described by one reviewer as “Their best show yet”, Don’t Mess! comes from two traditional Indian folk tales: Panchkuina, and Rajkumari Baingan, both in circulation long before Snow White and Rose Red, or Sleeping Beauty (to which they are related) entered the European canon.
Deeply absorbing with powerful themes of jealousy and dispossession, sin, punishment, confession and forgiveness, the show is delivered with the unsentimental elegance of Greek tragedy. Balna is a princess born from a magic aubergine. When her mother dies, her father quickly falls in love with the Stepmother from Hell, who duly lives up to expectations by demanding the girl’s heart, lungs and liver on a plate. However, at this point the ancient Hindu gods don’t agree, and step in with spectacular consequences …
Don’t Mess! is the company’s latest international collaboration between British and South Asian artists. Guy Hutchins’ storytelling is interwoven with Chitraleka Bolar’s stunning South Asian dance. Ed Briggs captures every changing mood and fleeting sound on a range of eastern and western instruments. Purvin, artistic director of The Fetch puppet company, has designed haunting, evocative puppet/masks "and an elegant set" (reviwsgate); and Arnim Friess has returned for his fourth Moby Duck show to provide stunning digitally animated projections.
“This show really keeps audiences absorbed,” says Guy Hutchins, artistic director. “When I stepped out into the auditorium after the first schools’ matinee, I noticed all four hundred audience members had forgotten to open their crisps!”
See 'Don't Mess' on Tour:
Check back for new dates frequently!
Date
Venue
Postcode
Time
Phone
Tue 19 January
St Anne's Primary, Chelmsley Wood
B37 5DD
9:30
01217 703 878
Mon 1 March
Bishop Challenor School, Kings Heath
B14 7EG
13:00
0121 444 4161
Wed 3 March
Square Chapel, Halifax
HX1 1QG
13:30
01422 349422
Fri 5 March
Heartlands Academy, Birmingham
B7 4QR
13:00
0121 464 3931
Sat 13 March
Waterside Arts Centre
M33 7ZF
14:30
0161 912 5616
Sat 20 March
Arnside Educational Institute, Cumbria
LA5 0DX
1930
01524 762254
Sun 21 March
Kirkoswald Village Hall, Cumbria
CA10 1EU
1500
01768 898187
Sat 22 May
Darlington Arts Centre
DL3 7AX
1100
01325 486555
1400
Now Touring:
Once Upon A Tiger
By Peter Wynne Willson, Yoon Won Hye and sixty children from two continents
Follow the international development on the dedicated Blog
In Moby Duck‘s latest international collaboration storytelling, live music, puppetry and wild, exuberant Korean humour swirl together into a heady, exhilarating performance style that is the company‘s trade mark.
Bookers: This show is still available for booking. For more info read the bookers page
Join our Mailing List and be the first to hear about new Moby Duck shows
In an old house, far away, there‘s a tiger skin. Sit on it, and believe, and stories will start to swirl - tall ones, short ones, old ones, new ones - each more magical than the one before …
Writers Peter Wynne Willson and Yoon Won Hye have worked with two groups of children, one in a small village in Korea and another in England, in a very twenty-first century way. Young people have blogged and skyped their ideas backwards and forwards across seven thousand miles - everything from daily preoccupations, small and large, to the wildest possible dreams and fantasies. Over time, shared ideas began to grow - until two groups who have never met face to face have inspired a unique, brand new fusion of East and West.
