MARK FISHER sees a lively revival of Licketyspit’s take on a classic fable

THE STANDARD way to tell Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare is as a battle between right and wrong. We root for the tortoise because he is slow but well meaning, whereas the hare is all rampant ego and selfishness. It’s a crazy idea that the tortoise could beat the hare in a race, but it appeals to our love of the underdog and our nervousness about society’s high-hitters getting carried away with themselves.

Tas Emiabata as the Hare and Paul Chaal as the Tortoise (© Laurence Winram)

This telling of the tale, however, is more ambivalent. First seen in 2002, just as Licketyspit was emerging from under the wing of Wee Stories, this revival of Hare and Tortoise stars Tas Emiabata, with a pair of red tights on his head for his floppy ears, and Paul Chaal, wearing a shopping basket for a shell. They are less like deadly rivals than playground friends, one a tad boisterous, the other rather slow, but both putting up with each other in the way that children do.

It is true that, having challenged each other to a race, it is Emiabata’s Hare who has the steepest learning curve ahead of him. It is equally true, however, that Chaal’s Tortoise faces lessons of his own. As they course around the set by Catherine Lindow and Ali Maclaurin – shades of Dr Seuss in the curious and colourful trees – they have to join forces to learn the value of cooperation and cross a river of undulating blue silk together.

We’re not surprised when Hare gets a tummy ache having greedily eaten all the cake in the market, but Tortoise is hardly blameless for repositioning a sign pointing to the Spooky Wood and sending his erstwhile friend off course.

Like all children growing up, they both have choices and neither always makes the best one. The result, as the finishing line draws near, is that all bets are off about which of them will win. The final twist underscores the play’s even-handed attitude and adds several shades of grey to Aesop’s moral certainty.

Only just managing to contain a particularly excitable Saturday afternoon audience, Emiabata and Chaal are funny and loveable in their primary roles, if a little stiff in some of the cameo parts they play as the race progresses. That can sometimes make the action seem protracted, but more typically, it is a lively, good natured show powered along by the thrill of the chase.

© Mark Fisher, 2009

Links

• Licketyspit
• Mark Fisher’s Scottish Theatre Blog