HUTCHY THE HARE at THE VAULT FESTIVAL, WATERLOO
As the audience walks into the intimate space where Hutchy the Hare is to be performed, something is already happening. Three people dressed in different coloured jumpsuits are beetling about the stage. One of them seems serious. The other two are playing. Are they adults? Kids? Who are they? What are they doing?
Some of these questions will be answered. Perhaps the most pressing – who they are – will not. And that’s exactly how it should be in this trippy horror fest from Scram and Scrum Theatre.
The story centres around three people – Perry (short for Peregrine Falcon), Beaver, and Frog. Although nothing is explained directly to the audience, it soon becomes clear that these characters work in a kind of sweatshop, making bespoke dresses for rich people and getting points out of ten for each creation. If they ever reach the fabled ten, they can go to the play gardens. Otherwise, they have to keep working. Because Hutchy says so, and Hutchy is their friend – and yours, apparently. Although I think I’d rather keep my distance.
There is a lot of tension in this hour-long production, and it works wonderfully well because there are also moments of levity. To see the three main characters playing together – and they are actually playing – and discussing what they might do when they get that longed-for ten is heart-warming. But beneath it all, there is a growing cloud of doom, and it’s getting closer.
To make this point abundantly clear, the three friends watch a video at the end of their workday. It’s a rerun of a kids’ TV show, Hutchy the Hare. It all seems innocent enough, and the tropes and images will be familiar to anyone who has ever watched TV as a child or with one, but as the audience keeps watching and sees more and more strangeness in front of them, those innocent images become something else. Nothing is explicitly said, but there is a definite undercurrent of something that made me feel particularly uneasy.
This use of multimedia is impressive. Combining video, live action, and terrifying sound effects – by the end of the show, the audience is sure to be conditioned to sit quietly, fingers on lips, only to speak when spoken to – the overall result is one that is startling and dark, in all the best ways.
The shocking moments of terror (there was one moment when Hutchy himself made an appearance, gloved hands first, where I was almost tempted to cover my eyes, but equally, I couldn’t look away) in between moments that could almost be comforting in their familiarity ramped up the tension to very nearly unbearable levels, and by the end, there was nowhere to hide and nowhere to run, and I’m not just talking about the characters; the audience felt exactly the same.
Scram and Scrum have dared to take something loved and lovable and twist it into something everyone secretly feels but would never speak aloud; kids’ TV is undeniably creepy if you think about it too much. And I’ll be thinking about Hutchy the Hare for a good long while yet.
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