EntertainmentTheatre

Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs 2: The Magic Cutlass at the Regent Theatre Review

22-23 February 2018

Reviewed by Dotty Winters

My six-year old reviewing assistant and I are big fans of the Captain Flinn and Pirate Dinosaurs book by Giles Andreae and Russell Ayto, so we were excited to see this sequel brought to life on stage by children’s theatre company Les Petits.

As we took our seats the curtains were open, and the stage was set with a banner welcoming us to St Barnabus’s School play, a makeshift pirate ship, and one of the case, in character as Miss Pie, walking around the auditorium chatting to children. The play centres, like the first book on the exploits of Flinn, Pearl and Tom, three school children who either have very active imaginations or a very unfortunate habit of accidentally summoning vicious prehistoric beasts, in hats. Like the book the play expertly blurs the line between what is happening in the children’s imagination and what is “real”, with the set-ups, costumes and sets getting increasingly complex as the story evolves.

The cast of four certainly put in a shift- playing all of the characters, operating puppets, and resetting the stage as they went. The 6-year-old quickly realised that there were only four people but was endlessly impressed by how quickly they transformed and popped up from different parts of the stage (I can’t count how many times he told me that there were only 4 of them on the way home, it really blew his tiny mind!).

Whilst the sets were simple, they worked well and added to the illusion of play. The use of puppets, and shadow puppets was very effective, and the underwater scene (which combined both of these devices) was especially impressive (I’m still unclear why jelly fish have French accents, but… c’est la vie). This scene was one of a few moments where the action spilled off the stage into the audience, which completely delighted the children watching.

We reviewed it at the, always excellent, Regent’s Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, where enthusiastic staff members greeted us with a suitably pirate-y “Ahoy Mateys”. Before entering the auditorium, we picked up a couple of high-quality £1 pirate hats from the bar, which we wore throughout- they were excellent value and a welcome change from running the gauntlet past strands of flashing magic wands at £10 apiece as we’ve experienced in other children’s productions.

I gave my assistant the last word. He declared that all of it was “Awesome, apart from the bit where Steve the Stegosaurus was put into the sausage machine, which was a bit mean. And I liked the disco bit”.

Rating: 4/5

Tickets cost £13.65 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).

Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs 2: The Magic Cutlass is at the Regent Theatre in Stoke from 22-23 February 2018, for more information or to book tickets visit www.atgtickets.com/regent-theatre or call the box office on 0844 871 7649.

Regent Theatre, Piccadilly, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST1 1AP | 0844 871 7649

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