Of all the shows we caught at the Ace! Festival! I enjoyed Hare Brain the least.

Don’t get me wrong, the show in itself was decent- a modern take on Aesop’s famous “slow and steady wins the race” contrasted the harried young executive called Harriet against her zen cleaning lady, Lucy. Harriet, rushing a deadline is taken through a zen/awakening dream journey by the yoga-teacher like Lucy, where thereafter she decides the harried life was not for her.

The props were cleverly constructed- using recycled materials to make the turtles and more but ultimately lost on the bulk of their young audience who got restless from the lack of action in the show. Q actually fell asleep midway- and I let him, seeing as most of the other little kids there felt the same.

From the synopsis:
Hare Brain is a critically acclaimed re-telling of Aesop’s classic Hare and the Tortoise from one of Australia’s leading children’s theatre companies. Gentle Lucy, a cleaning lady, and Harriet, a marketing executive, must race against time to find the perfect story to fit the perfect toy…… but will fast and furious or slow and steady win their race? Slapstick comedy, inventive puppetry and extraordinary characters create a madcap production of this quest for ‘the great’ new (toy) story. Everyday objects are magically transformed into a fantastical world of inventions as Harriet and Lucy discover that by helping each other see things differently the most extraordinary things can happen…. (And) your broom may never look the same again.