Big Wooden Horse Theatre has made a successful adaptation of the popular children’s book by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort. The story follows our young protagonist, Timmy (an agreeably boisterous performance from Harrison Spiers) as he discovers the mystery of why his underpants keep disappearing. We meet three friendly aliens who take Timmy on an adventure of a lifetime. The book itself was a lovely short story for young children and director Adam Bampton-Smith has developed the story further to create this fantastic, fun filled production. The colourful production design, imaginative set and classy special effects were all fantastic, as were the lovely detailed puppets that brought the aliens to life. Children of all ages will lap this up. The cast are all uniformly excellent, creating the right energy and bouncing off each other effortlessly.
The musical arrangements throughout are also very impressive; the groovy 60s number that Timmy’s teacher sings was particularly enjoyable and I’m sure plenty of parents will be tapping their feet to this throwback to a bygone era. The show flowed along nicely and there’s plenty of comedy provided by the aliens themselves. However, it perhaps could have benefitted from a little more humour for the parents as it is rather focused on entertaining the children. Having said that, the entire audience (which was sold out at the performance I attended) seemed to enjoy the show. So, as it is aimed at the children, I asked my six year old niece for her critical evaluation of the show; her reply: ‘It was really good but now I’m hungry.’ Overall, two thumbs up from us.
