I feel almost unfair writing a review of this show when there were so few children in the audience, and those who were there were so very young that they could hardly understand it, let alone thrive on it.
The show goes somewhat like this: upon your arrival at the venue you are tooted in by FitzHigham and welcomed by him and his sidekick Douieb into ‘The Adventurers Club’. Together as a band of intrepid explorers we shall go to the Artic, not Antigua, and find the great Sir John Franklin. Franklin owes £15 for his 200 years worth of unpaid membership fees, you see, and has survived these many years in the Artic by eating his shoes! The plot is a loose one which is very simple and easy to follow for the over 4s. The Northern Lights, a Polar Bear, and a snow blizzard all come our way; we even learn how to walk in a ‘heroical’ fashion (just luuuuunge) like true adventurers.
This pair is strong at improvisation and happy to let the children’s ideas and suggestions shape the show: we are encouraged to come up with a set of rules that must be followed, for example. Audience participation, too, is critical as we are called upon to help build the plane and make sound effects to get it off the ground.
The show is fun and our guides suitably mad, but its looseness ultimately leads to a slackening of the children’s attention. Big pillows become more interesting fodder to explore than the Artic and you feel FitzHigham and Douieb struggling to pull them back. With older children this show, I’m sure, could have really taken off.
