As the weather this half term continues to be unpredictable, we head indoors again for part four of this feature. This time the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells is our destination and a live performance by the Birmingham Stage Company of Barmy Britain, the latest in the series of productions based on Terry Deary’s multi-million selling Horrible Histories books.
The show starts with a set piece which introduces the four performers to the eager and enthusiastic audience, and sets the boundaries for the entertainment that will follow over the next two hours – basically, a potted history of Britain from Boudicca to World War One via such notable figures as Alfred the Great, Richard the Lionheart, Henry the Eighth and, on the female side, Elizabeth the First and Queen Victoria.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved history at school. I mean I REALLY loved it, so much so that I scored 98% in my final exam, but I can’t help thinking that I would have loved it even more if productions like this had been around back then. As it is, now it is my son who reaps the benefit of this superbly creative and imaginative way to present facts as fun and, although he is only six, he stays engaged throughout the show.
Laura Dalgleish and Alison Fitzjohn together with Benedict Martin and Gary Wilson are the four magnificently talented actors who, with perfect comic timing, great characterisation and even a few song and dance routines, take us through Britain’s historical greats and who, with dozens of costume changes between them, bring every character (back) to life before our very eyes.
The screen, which replaces the more usual form of backdrop, is used very effectively with moving pictures that help to set the scene for each segment, minimising the need for props and creating a very authentic feel to each scene. Characters are able to move about the stage safe in the knowledge that the scene we see moves with them.
That visual co-ordination is just as slick and professional as the syncing of the audio soundtrack, with each and every sound bite, song and sound effect coming at just the right moment to enable them to keep the hundreds of children in the audience in a state of “suspension of disbelief” that so many other companies fail to even begin to achieve. Jacqueline Trousdale, Jason Taylor and Nick Sagar and the brains behind the designing for both light and sound and they deserve heaps of praise for putting together such a slick and stunning production.
As anyone who has seen a recent Horrible Histories production will know, act two features Bogglevision. For the uninitiated, Bogglevision is Birmingham Stage Company’s patented 3D vision system which, as if it wasn’t “live” enough already, literally adds another dimension to the performance.
With our glasses firmly in place, cannonballs, bats, rats, pigeons and various other objects start to fly from the stage and, at one point, we even join the residents of Sheffield as the Dale Dyke Dam bursts and we get a “first hand” experience of the Great Flood of 1864. The World War One scene, at the end of the show, is particularly poignant and as the terrifying figures are read out, emphasising the terrible losses in that conflict, a bi-plane appears to fly overhead to drop poppy petals.
As they get close to approaching their 25th Anniversary year, Birmingham Stage Company prove, yet again, what an incredibly skilled and brilliantly talented company they are and show, as they always do, why they are Britain’s premier producer of fantastic family theatre.
Horrible Histories – Barmy Britain runs at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells until Sunday June 1st with two performances daily.