Two Hull Truck Shows a-Saturday

Two shows in Hull Truck's Studio on Saturday. Last Saturday, that is. Both one-offs for the Theatre, and neither exactly what you'd expect from the place. I saw both in what felt like a long day of theatre, though that's as much down to the fact that I was beginning to head into illness-fever territory as anything else.

Afternoon
In the afternoon, children's show Don't Mess, by a company confusingly named Moby Duck. Yes, at least one family turned up expecting a story about a whale. I don't think they were disappointed, but they certainly didn't get what they expected, and the kids were confused at the interval.

There aren't any whales in this story, which is 'a tale as old as India' – there's your first give-away that Moby Duck's work has nothing to do with whales...although, simply reading the publicity would also have told you that. Instead, the three performers give us a classic stepmother vs. daughter fairy tale. I many ways, the Indian version of Snow White, minus the dwarfs. There's a beautiful princess, born in rather unusual circumstances, who turns out to be an amazing cook, before being driven away as part of the needlessly cruel schemes of her new step-mum. In telling this story this way, Moby Duck combine several elements of fairy tales from all over the place, and almost make it like the Thousand and One Nights all thrown in together. Instead of dwarfs and a handsome prince, we've got the intervention of the Hindu gods (well, one of them but in various guises, the production perhaps wisely avoids going into too much detail on the exact way Hindu divinity operates) in multi-media form.

There's plenty of this multi-media stuff to keep the kids open-mouthed, and an awful lot going on visually. It certainly makes a colourful spectacle, and as such the South Asian elements of story-telling are very much on display. Oh, and the lad on percussion in the corner, of course – no doubt an integral part of South Asian stories. All that bright light and drumming didn't do any favours for my headache or growing sense of illness – word of warning: don't start popping paracetamol in children's shows; as if being a wheezing, lone man at the back weren't enough, drugs are a definite way to draw anxious looks.

Ultimately, I'm not sure the Indian dance on display is enough to keep the kids hooked, even when coupled with live sound effects and inventive (economical, set-wise) use of video. What Moby Duck do achieve is to bring a bit of high, foreign culture to Hull, which is to be applauded. How much of it went over the kids' heads is another question. But it's a worthy endeavour, and there really ought to be more attempts to do this.

Evening
In the evening, the less child-friendly vaudeville act, Madam Laycock and her Dabeno Pleasures. If you think the name sounds smutty, that's because it is.

This is a group of young women who bill their style as somewhere between vaudeville and circus, using elements of both to create something unique and amazing. But don't get your hopes up. These are young people trying to be Tim Burton, and not quite pulling it off (but, hey, set your goals high). They've an artfully messy set, both musically and staging-wise, making use of talent on a variety of instrument, mostly drums and piano accordion.

Madam Laycock, despite her large amount of hair and innuendo-laden name, isn't as interesting as her assembled Pleasures, a collection of freaks that have backstories you'd love to believe if only they worked. There's Fritz, the mutant on piano accordion, whose story is great until s/he tries to speak, and that ruins it all. The voodoo grandma on drums also more or less works, if you don't think about it too much, as does the Russian doll on violin (the most competent musician of the group). But just how funny is repeating the idea of the Bearded Lady's bestiality, especially when she's lost her beardy costume before her beardy nature is highlighted? It spoils the joke when the Bearded Lady hasn't got a beard any more. Then there's the Ringmaster figure that welcomes the audience in...a potentially brilliant device, if only it were applied consistently. That seems to be it on the circus front, and the company need to make more of that.

Like the family expecting the story of a whale, I was left slightly confused by the interval. Were these kids actors who played music throughout their poorly-plotted play or a bunch of musicians with silly costumes, half-baked characters and a set? Ultimately, a lack of cohesive storyline marks them out as musicians and not actors – which is fine, but they maybe need that to be more clear early on.

While endearingly messy onstage, Madam Laycock's band block out the scenery behind them. A quick word on the scenery: it almost steals the show; detailed and inventive, it perfectly captures the small town the songs are based in. It's even got shadow puppets, courtesy of that ringmaster. But they can't be seen, because of the Dabeno Pleasures. As with so many other things, the group need a little more focus and a little tidying up, so that their design ethic isn't wasted behind them.

This is a promising group, with a wicked streak and mildly eccentric sense of humour (how eccentric for eccentricity's sake is anyone's guess), that is crying out for a guiding hand to steer them in the right direction and give them some discipline and focus. What they also need is time to hone their performance in front of an audience that's not composed of their friends, so they can get more broad, varied reactions to their (at times self-indulgent) material.