I hated history lessons at school - all those dates and names of Kings and Queens, so long ago that they seemed totally irrelevant. If only I could have supplanted them with the Red Handed Theatre Companys romp through the ages, two millenniums worth from Dark through Enlightenment to our own modern times. More might have stuck in my memory, and they would have been far more fun too. The six-strong ensemble, decked in variations of red, white and blue (naturally) take us on a highly irreverent ride, commencing with the Boy Kings - I had absolutely no idea there were four of them. We should have one on the throne now, it would be a hoot. All those palace orgies and cocaine parties and talentless models traipsing through the portals of Buck House. Back in the times when years were counted in three digits instead of four (behold, my ignorance of dates even now) they were probably just as monstrously juvenile. Ethelred the Unready was a gift to the players, a young man who simply failed to get the right costume on at the right time. Ah, this is history as it should be taught. There are also timely references to immigration. Nothing is new.There are some beautifully conceived set pieces. Those ridiculous movies which have Queen Elizabeth and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots meeting in the flesh (which they never did) were here topped by a sword fight between the two monarchs, as vicious a female squabble as one might find outside a night club in Kings Lynn on a Saturday night. Naturally, it ends with a full on-stage beheading, a moment when I literally spilt my red wine, so realistic did it look for just a second. But in the true magic of theatre, the headless Mary was up again and we were off running. The six wives of Henry the Eighth, played by male and female alike, were a joy to watch, as they faced the audience and confessed their sins. My favourite moment was when the Mad Kings gave way to the Revolting Peasantry. Enter Wat Tyler to advocate the destruction of the hierarchical system in 1381 - with modern rap. Yes, Tyler was a rap artist folks, and a good one at that, and he raps his way through a sizeable chunk of social history, getting rid of the poll tax and meeting government on its own terms, before being slain. I told you it was irreverent.The whole show is neatly framed within the device of Charles Dickens telling his young son Walter a bedtime story about the Kings and Queens of England. The young man must have had a very sleepless night. The company is to be congratulated on a fast, frenetic, wonderfully silly romp through history that never lets up for a minute - Queen Victoria hardly gets a look in - and which races helter-skelter right up to the present day. Okay, our monarchs may not be quite so mad now, but hey, give them time. I felt it went on a bit too long at the end, but the show is so full of humour and energy and - dare I say it - education, that youll come out a lot wiser than when you went in. This would be a wonderful show to tour schools. If only there had been such a marvellous piece of entertainment in my day, I might have left with more than just 1066 and the Battle of Hastings ringing in my brain.
