EntertainmentTheatre

Bing Live at the Theatre Royal Nottingham Review

28-29 August 2018

Reviewed by Sandip Stapleton

I took my kids 6 and 3 to see Bing Live at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. We got to see Bing and his friends Sula, Pando, Coco, Flop and Amma live on stage.

I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of whether they would be puppets or people dressed as the characters. They were in fact puppets almost built around a person so that when they moved their feet, the character would move their feet, when they swayed to the right, the character sways to the right etc. They had their hands inside the character’s head controlling all the eye and head movements and they also provided the voices, which were quite similar to the ones in the tv programme so that was good. My 3 year old didn’t seemed phased by the fact he could see the puppeteers at all, whereas my 6 year old was working out all the mechanics of it all!

The first half was around 35 minutes and focusses on Bing and Sula and the make believe games they play and them exploring the stage they are on. Bing and Amma make a few appearances too as they play with sounds and lightings that can be found on a stage set. The premise of the show is that Bing and his friends want to make a play for us, their audience, and we watch them exploring and making ideas for it.

There is lots of audience interaction with singing along and dancing which gets the kids really excited, even my 6 year old got involved with that bit.

At the end of the first half, for the interval, Bing informed us that they were joining the ‘toilet train ‘ and would be back shortly which allowed us to all have a comfort break too which is needed when you have such a young audience.

The second half which is similar in length focusses on the actual ‘play’ they are putting on for us. Obviously, Pando mischievously spoils things in the usual way he does but it all works out in the end.

There were quite a few kids in the audience during the second half that were started to get restless and there were quite a few tears and tantrums, but this seemed to be the very young kids in the audience. With a show like Bing, you do expect the audience to be of a younger age but I think the timing, bright lights and being seated in one place for that length of time makes this a show more suited to children aged 2-4.

All in all, if your child’s a fan of Bing and is of the correct target age, they will love this show and will join in as much as they can and will whoop and cheer as their favourite character comes onto the stage for the first time.

The theatre, it’s a Bing thing!

Rating: 5/5

Bing Live is currently on tour around the UK, for more information and tour dates visit www.bingliveshow.com.

For other shows at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham visit www.trch.co.uk or call the box office on 0115 989 5555.

Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall, Theatre Square, Nottingham, NG1 5ND

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