Review – Horrible Histories – Barmy Britain Part Two

My lovely friend known online as ‘Cake Eater’ went to see ‘Horrible Histories – Barmy Britain Part Two’ at the Garrick Theatre, and enjoyed it so much she wanted to get her review ‘out there’! I do happily accept guest posts from people (not the wanky ‘advert’ ones) so if you want something on here do get in touch! I’ll hand over to Miss Eater.. 🙂

I’m still pretty new to this ‘Step Mum’ lark. It’s been 2 years of joy, my lovely boyfriend has the most fantastic son who is now 10, and I feel very lucky that I get to share ‘stuff’ with them.  One of my biggest loves is getting to see kids movies, and generally be a big kid myself, so last Saturday as a treat for a great school report we went to that Big Fancy London Town to watch – Horrible Histories, Barmy Britain.

I read the Horrible Histories books when I was a teenager, a good 16 years ago, and fondly remember the gross tales of the Black Death, the Terrible Tudors and the Vicious Vikings, so was really looking forward to it.

It was a midday showing at the Garrick Theatre, just off the Strand, a small but beautiful theatre (the 10 year old immediately pointed out the murals with boobies) and the dress circle was pretty packed with parents, grandparents of course LOADS of kids.

There are just the two actors on stage, which must be a tough gig! Engaging adults is hard enough without having to entertain kids too!

We were lead through the ages of ‘Barmy Britain’ starting off with Boudicca which included a chant along to the We Will Rock You tune, ‘She will, she will, smash you’, through to the Black Death with the audience being pitched against each other with an excellent song and a bit of simple choreography (the toughest move was holding your nose). Next we saw Evil Elizabeth I, and found out that Henry VIII had a servant to wipe him bum! We rapped our way through Barmy Queen Victoria and her love for Albert, played ‘Take me Out’ with Charles I, learnt about the dastardly Burke and Hare then finally we were onto the TOWIE Dick Turpin.  (The 10 year old is currently learning about Dick Turpin in school, so this was received with tones of enthusiasm and whooping because he was from good old Essex. )

The show lasted an hour, it felt like far less. The boyfriend has been known to fall asleep during at kids movie at the flicks, so gets the full thumbs up from him having stayed awake! The costume changes were slick, the props included severed heads and hands, the actors made fun of the bits they got wrong, and most important of all the 10 year old thought it was fun.  Brilliantly Barmy!

After the show, it was only right that we ventured to Planet Hollywood for a well-deserved burger and a smoothie with a bit of retail therapy thrown in. An excellent day out! (Just don’t go to Hamleys before Christmas, I beg of you.)

Definitely enjoying this step mum gig. Hopefully we’ll get to do plenty more kids stuff before the 10 year old gets too ‘cool for skool’.