REVIEW: Horrible Histories | Barmy Britain at the Garrick Theatre

Horribble Histories is brought to The Garrick Theatre by the Birmingham Stage company who are playing the show alongside David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny.

 The structure of the piece was perfect, as we moved through history nothing lingered for too long or too little. Lots of fun facts were thrown around which kept the audience interested and provoked lots of reactions from everyone in the theatre.

The two actors, Ashley Bowden and Laura Dalgleish, were huge balls of energy the whole way through and provided jokes for not only the children but the adults too. They managed to sustain every child’s attention for the entire hour and did not dip once.

The only criticism I would have on the production is that some aspects were slightly messy, the changing of costumes on stage could have been done in the two huge tents that dressed the stage, but instead they were done in the back corner.

However, this is a fantastic performance to take the children to this summer, a quick and easy show to watch where there is no pressure to make sure they are sat nicely in their seats ready for the long show ahead. Its quick, fun and enough to keep them entertained for an hour. You might even learn something yourself!

There is a lot around at the moment for children, but everything is quite expensive and it can be a risk taking younger children to see the big musicals. But this would be a perfect first exposure to some theatre and get them to

understand how it works.

Horrible Histories is exactly how we should be engaging the younger generations in History, it’s a fun, information packed resource that needs to be utilised by all schools around the country.

Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain plays in rep with Gangsta Granny at the Garrick Theatre until 2^nd September.

Review by Mark Swale 

Rating: ★★★★

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