Ian Waller and his son enjoy an hilarious visit to Tudor Britain with the team from Horrible Histories
Just fantastic family theatre! This wasn’t our first visit to see the Horrible Histories team live on stage and each time they just get better and better!
Horrible Histories is, of course, probably best know for the just wonderful TV series that presented reports from across history in a funny, gory, silly, slightly whiffy way that children – and adults – love. Well the stage presentations are pretty much the same. OK, it’s not the super famous faces from TV, but the presenters are still superb and the almost full audience at the Theatre Royal just loved it.
Taking over all of the roles for the evening were Emma Swan and Jack Ballard, transforming for kings and queens to executioners, criminals, puppet masters, playwrights and even Henry VIII’s official bottom wiper, all in the space of a an hour and 20 minutes.
Starting slightly earlier at 7pm to suit the younger audience, Emma and Jack were straight into character telling the story of well named terrible Tudors, from the horrible Henries right through to Elizabeth I – and what a particularly terrible lot they were! Along the way we’re met with intrigue and murder, back stabbing and executions, plenty of blood (don’t worry, it’s not that gory) and actually quite a lot of poo!
Throughout the performances are just superb. With Ballard and Swan taking on everyone from a whole range of royalty to William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake (who we discovered was actually pretty big in the creation of the slave trade – so perhaps not the hero he’s made out to be), the princes in the Tower and any number of common folk too, they also take on singing, dancing, rapping and rocking. And yes, there’s a fair bit of audience participation too, which means a great chance for we oldies to embarrass their children!
Of course, in between the fun and silliness, there’s a bit of learning taking place as well – for example, did you know why protestants are called protestants, what the sentence was for begging in Tudor Britain or what went wrong for Richard III at the Bottle of Bosworth?
All in all, this is just pitch perfect fun for children and the oldies that they take with them.
Horrible Histories – Terrible Tudors appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Thursday 20th to Saturday 22nd July. To book tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk