Poet Simon Mole and musician Gecko performed their new children’s show “Mole And Gecko: The Show” this afternoon at Oldham Library, as part of their national tour. It is a gentle musical journey involving the value of friendship, suitable for toddlers and younger children, interspersed with the occasional cow poo joke. I brought the Assistant Reviewers, who are aged eleven, nine and five.
The set and costumes relied very heavily on the audience’s imagination. Mole and Gecko were playing the characters of a mole and a gecko, while wearing plain T-shirts and having nothing else about them to suggest these animals. As most of the young audience have probably never seen a mole or a gecko in real life – I remember having to find a heavily illustrated edition of “The Wind In The Willows” to read to the Assistant Reviewers, modern city children that they are – it would have been helpful if the audience’s imaginations could have been supported a little more in this regard.
Having said that, watching two grown-ups doing silly things for almost an hour kept the audience content, and I think the overall message of the piece came across.
Mole and Gecko live by a river, find a boat, and go on a journey. They encounter a Crab that’s lost its digging stick, a Duck that’s lost its comfort blanket, and then a naughty Weasel that tricks them out of their boat in exchange for a pile of chocolate biscuits. The Weasel character, also performed by Simon Mole, was a great success: scampering about the stage in a sharp checked jacket lined with biscuits, and doing several acoustic rap numbers with a Madness flavour. In the end, the friendship of Mole and Gecko saves the day, and the naughty Weasel is reformed.
Mole and Gecko passionately believe in the audience being active participants rather than passive consumers, so the audience were regularly called on to make suggestions, contribute lyrics, and sing to the songs. The young audience loved this. The very youngest in the audience were regularly dancing onto the stage. All the Assistant Reviewers joined in with enthusiasm, with the five-year-old’s right arm being raised in a straining way during most of the performance: he had so many things he wanted to say.
Both performers sang, and Gecko accompanied on the guitar. Much of the script, when it wasn’t being improvised around the children’s offerings, was written in a stylised poetic way. There was humour, but it was of a gentle and low-key nature, and there was some physicality, which was also gentle and low-key. As a children’s show, it was understated, but very effective.
Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 29/5/19
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