Euripides’ The Bacchae. You know the one; smidge of inadvertent filicide, mass drunkenness and a whole load of orgies. It doesn’t exactly scream Watch with Mother. So it’s a bit of a mystery why Parker Rees Rubini decided to adapt The Bacchae into “Hoof Hoof” a play suitable for children. And even more a mystery that it was marked as suitable with parental guidance for 0+.
The tale of the wronged god Dionysius and his vengeance upon the people of Thebes is given an incongruous cuddly frame by two satyrs, captured by an evil Cyclops, who beg their father to tell them a story. Somewhere into the mix the god Dionysius himself emerges complete with maenads and so the story unfolds in a mixture of song, dance and puppetry.
The many songs were enjoyably bouncy but, despite the nice touch of handing out lyrics, a combination of overly loud instruments and no attempt to involve the audience meant that children were robbed of the opportunity to join in. There’s plenty of suggestive writhing by the maenads but nothing worse: a sort of semi orgy. Which is of course the worst kind. And was calling Dionysius “the God who comes” a double entendre or just an unfortunate oversight? Less funny were the sections where the maenads ran around the audience in the dark while loud music played, scaring the child sitting at the front.
The two young satyrs, played by Richard Mifsud and Joe Rubini, clop merrily about the stage wearing impressive 70’s platforms. They have an innate likeability which does much to redeem the show and paired with the fleet-footed Dionysius (George Russell) there was nice contrast between their boyish if petulant enthusiasm and the god’s snaky charm. All music was created by the cast onstage- the style was described in the Fringe programme as “punk-folk”, two words which, rather like children and Euripides, don’t usually go together. While the playing was flawless it was unfortunate that the group singing was not always in key.
Other elements of the play felt unpolished. A crucial scene towards the end occurred in near-darkness. The shadow puppet work was frankly sloppy with hands, feet and a torch all poking out from behind the curtain and puppets that were much too small to tell a story.
There is much to like in Hoof Hoof, with a young, musically talented cast. Unfortunately the schism between source material and target audience is too great, leading to a play which satisfies neither young nor old.
