Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors at The Capitol Horsham Review

Reviewed by Louise Watts

If I had the opportunity to time travel to an era of my choice and be a fly on the wall, I would definitely choose the Tudor era. Known for its blood, punishment and ruthless monarchs, the Tudor’s ruled England with a rod of iron!

I attended The Capitol theatre in Horsham yesterday evening with my 10-year-old daughter to see Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors where we were quite literally transported back to the Tudor times. An absolutely incredible, interactive, 3D experience made you feel like you were actually there. There was flying missiles, fireworks and boats sailing into the audience. Kids were excited and full of energy and life, dodging the missiles and participating enthusiastically when invited to do so.

The show was hugely informative and I have no doubt that the children learnt more in that 90 minutes than they have ever done in any history lesson at school (sorry history teachers!) and it will be remembered simply due to the way it was performed. I learnt an awful lot as an adult too and I am not the only one as I had a conversation in the interval with another lady who had never heard the “Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” song. She will certainly never forget it now and I am sure there are children all over town today singing it proudly!

Much of the shows success is down to the 3 actors who delivered the performance. My favourite bits were Simon Nock performing as Will-I-Am Shakespeare and Lisa Allen and Izaak Cainer’s amazing double act quite literally brought tears of laughter to my eyes at times. The way they performed together as Drab and Dross was quite simply outstanding.

The show was split into two with a brief 15-minute interval. The second half had 3D effects and added a whole new dimension to what was already an amazing act. The set was perfect and the costumes were completely fitting with the Tudor era. There were jokes and laughs a plenty along with songs to recap what had been taught. Kids were absorbing the information they were being given but because of the way it was delivered they were oblivious to the fact that it was “learning” or “work”. Nothing short of sheer genius to be able to engage an auditorium full of young children for 90 minutes and have them leave having had a history lesson!

The Capitol theatre was a delight as usual. Staff were friendly and eager to assist in any way possible. There are plenty of facilities to be able to buy drinks and snacks and the bar area was buzzing in the interval. Parking is easy with several car parks nearby, some even free which is a bonus nowadays!

I would thoroughly recommend this show to anyone with school age children who enjoy having fun. I promise you that you will have an incredible night out and they will come away full of new knowledge and buzzing from what they have seen.

Rating: 5/5

For other shows at The Capitol in Horsham visit www.thecapitolhorsham.com or call the box office on 01403 750220.

The Capitol Horsham, North Street, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 1RG | 01403 750220