Trailblaze Theatre Company are a young company with bags of enthusiasm who, according to their website blurb, specialise in interactive and immersive theatre. This show is definitely immersive. We meet at The Old market in Hove and are taken outside by Jeff (played by Amy Curtis) who runs Elite tours. He explains that there are 2 tours today (I’m guessing there are usually three – one for each actor) and the three of us are split into two (one pair and the poor man who gets a solo tour), given mp3 players and sent on our way.
The show is an interactive walking tour around Brighton and Hove and depending on which group you are in, you either help C (played by bubbly Charlie Blandford) find her friend Chloe or help Chloe (Amy Curtis) on her adventure. I felt that by the time the two plays meet up and merge I had perhaps lost of some the plot. There was also a character played by James Dubois – an investigator searching for the Heir of Brighton, but his story seemed inconclusive and I’m not really sure what his character added to the story. There are other minor characters that we meet on the way and I am taken on a fast paced promenade through a packed Lion and Lobster to search for a clue in the toilet, create some instillation art in a park and see the bandstand in a whole new light.
Neither the script nor the acting is going to win any awards but this company is energetic and original and this is a fun piece of theatre. The description in the Fringe programme promises a journey through Brighton with ‘gutters full of glitter and drunken deeds strewn across the streets’, I’m not sure this lives up to this promising and enticing portrayal. There was a lovely moment where we all had to write down our shoes favourite memory but then these were just taken away and filed in a box. I hope they take those moments and lace them into something magical in the future.
This will appeal to all ages and children particularly would love this. Strap on your comfortable walking shoes and buckle up for an hour of smiles.
