The Birmingham Stage Company’s touring production of Terry Deary’s Horrible History double bill: Groovy Greeks and Incredible Invaders swung into Bristol last night. Now twenty-three years since The Terrible Tudors was published in 1993, the Horrible franchise has become a massive multi-media business, and they are certainly not shy about self-promotion!
Tonight it was the turn of the Greeks. Evelyn Adams, Elliott Fitzpatrick, Holly Morgan and Tom Moores were our enthusiastic guides – just the four of them took on everything from the Trojan War to the Battle of Salamis, with many a distraction along the way, such as the first Olympic Games and a date with the Minotaur in the labyrinth. I cannot remember any teachers going at this pace! Author Deary was also ‘with us’ all the way as the voice of Zeus, threatening his thespian helpers with life-threatening tests throughout their journey.
In a performance reminiscent of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, our Hellenophile heroes got busy ticking the USPs of the Deary format – educate, entertain, be revolting, be topical.
The use of TV and film blockbuster themes as vehicles for telling ancient classical stories was fun but occasionally palled. In the Simpson’s-themed tale of the King of Sparta, Menelaus as Mr Burns and Helen as Marge struck amusing if improbably figures. In the telling of the Hungry (sic) Games, co-writer Neal Foster and Deary pulled no punches with their TV commercial for slaves, “If you can’t beat the price, you can beat the slave,” announces our saccharine, smiling host, before slipping in HH facts about slavery today, and yes, even in the UK. (Educate – tick!)
Time to discover Hippocrates and his oath. We were introduced to the four humors (black and yellow bile, blood and phlegm) in a song with a delicious chorus! (Be revolting – tick!)
Thespis and the birth of theatre was next. Oh dear, no women allowed. But not to worry, we had the chirpy Ms Adams to remind us that women could do what they liked nowadays, but she didn’t mention equal pay.
It was in this sequence that the promised Bogglevision screen started to come into its own. Like experiencing an architect’s fly-through presentation only on a monster screen, we glided digitally down across a perfect hilltop horseshoe-shaped amphitheatre to the stage far below. But it would be the Bogglevision 3D feature that would have the under-10’s screaming in their seats in and after the break. (Entertain – tick!)
In a spoof version of Big Brother, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Socrates and Aristotle cracked some appalling jokes, which were popular with the younger audience members, before Socrates was forced to leave the house to kill himself. The theatre then shook with the mighty roars of a distant Minotaur before we were kitted up with 3D specs in the interval. And what fun they proved to be – with spears and rocks hurtling towards us, and with scorpions and huge mosquitos hovering, just in front of our faces it seemed, yelps of surprise started cracking across the auditorium like verbal popcorn.
Our classical journey then hurried us on to Crete and the dreaded labyrinth. When King Minos asked what the Minotaur looked like a digital scroll unfolded to show us a menacing portrait of… Boris Johnson! (Be topical – tick!).
The Bogglevision 3D moment had arrived. Running on the spot in front of an extraordinarily complex set of moving digital visuals, Fitzpatrick as Theseus was reminiscent of some of the early silent movie stars as he left his trail of wool. With tarantulas and bats shooting out of the screen as he sought out the terrifying beast, this scene really cut the mustard with those on booster seats.
Other pastiches followed: Gods Got Talent had us voting for our favourite deities, before we took on the Persian army at Thermopylae, to be assailed by many more digital spears and arrows.
It’s an entertaining show, with all the elements of Horrible Histories storytelling that two generations have now come to know and love. But whereas the original drawings of illustrator Martin Brown have provided so much warmth to the character of the books, the introduction of top-of-the-range digital effects is possibly in danger of stealing this show, making it a little too slick. But despite this, this Horrible Histories staging remains a fun way to swallow some cool facts at a young age. ★★★★☆ Simon Bishop 27th May 2016
Groovy Geeks – Friday 27th May @10:30 and Saturday 28th @19:00
Incredible Invaders – Friday 27th 19:00 and Saturday 28th @14:30
