If it’s true (as most certainly it is) that history is written by the winners, then it is also undoubtedly true, for those that care about such things (as we all should) that history is written by those who have a voice, a group amongst whose number women have been notoriously poorly represented.

Setting out to fill in at least one of the blanks in transmitted history Scratchworks have enlisted the help of a girl swatting for her AQA exam who has in turn enlisted the help of a couple of Muses, Polly and Mel, who, having been summoned by a sacred coin, see an opportunity to get back into the good books of mighty Jove.

I wot not if the heroine chosen by Scratchworks to begin this redress, Leta Lucius, is an echo of Lucretia Lucius whose rape brought about the downfall of the house of Tarquin and the establishment of the republic (she who exercised the imagination of Shakespeare amongst others) but strict historical veracity didn’t seem to be the point.

With props and costumes from the dressing up box in mummy’s bedroom and the cupboard under the sink they deliver unbridled theatre-making with a determination to have a good time in the process.  Their own delight rubs off on the audience. Devised theatre is largely concerned with problem solving – how are we going to tell this story? – and the simplest solution is often the best. So if you have to climb down a tunnel why not just use hoops? A Roman helmet? – an upturned dustpan brush will do the trick. A sacred flame in the temple of the Vestal virgins? – the solution is simplicity itself. A chariot race? The simplicity of the solutions become part of the fun. Added to which they help to move the thing along at a lick; up a tower, in a sewer, in the senate with several senators sharing the same toga (and same pair of hands) fighting in the Coliseum with a member of the audience (hilarious stuff) or in a Roman street. The pace is relentless, the energy effervescent.

I have to admit there were times when I wasn’t quite sure what was going on; why was Leta on the run, was it for dissing Caesar (represented by his head on a spinning coin!) in the Coliseum or was it for inventing the first parachute? Happily it didn’t seem to matter too much.

This is devised theatre at its best and the whole show is an absolute hoot from beginning to end.    ★★★★☆    Graham Wyles   14^th March 2019