Starchitects At The Lighthouse Poole Theatre Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mel S-W

When I told my son we were going to the theatre, he was over the moon.  He loved the fact he was able to join me on a trip to The Poole Lighthouse.  He skipped in singing and dancing away after recognising instantly the iconic glass frontage.  After a short drive over from Bournemouth we parked in one of the numerous car parks around the Poole Lighthouse.

Once in the theatre we were on for a treat with some amazing seats.  The theatre only has 669 seats which is perfect a children’s shows.  We were in row L and were very central and we had a great amount of space.  The great thing about the Lighthouse is I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad seat.  The gradient means that even if you had someone sat in front of you, you can still see.  My boy instantly asked for a booster seat and I could explain that he didn’t need one nor did he need to sit on all the coats!  The show is only 55 minutes long with no interval, which is perfect for kids, although there was disappointment that there was no interval icecream!

I did a bit of research about the show before we went as my son wanted to know what it was going to be about.  The Warwickshire based Motionhouse theatre group say that they have been “Pushing movement to its limits since 1988” The theatre group has a wide range of productions for both theatres and outside shows for festivals etc.  Starchitects, is in Poole for 2 performances on 24th October, it then moves to Horsham for 2 shows and then the Starchitects lands in Birmingham to Save Santa from November.  I think it’s great also that The Lighthouse uploaded a space themed dot to dot onto their website so the kids could help the Starchitects get to the moon.

The opening scene was a kids bedroom and the actors burst through the doors of the auditorium trying to find snacks from the audience.  This led to quite a stir and a lot of laughter from the audience with some (but not many!) kind children offering up their snacks.

The centre of the production is a plain box.  The cast of 5 were able to transform and use the boxes for a hide and seek game, dressing up boxes, telescopes and most importantly to create a space ship to get to the moon.  The images projected on the screens and the actors enabled us to believe that they had built their rocket out of boxes.  During their journey they came across a monster.  I personally loved the monster, it was huge (and controlled by one of the Starchitects) and it was made up of loads of green rings – imagine a large silver tumble dryer hose – and it was just so fluid in its movement.  At the end of the ‘arms’ were giant eyes. It was just brilliant.  The Starchitects worked the crowd well, even though the theatre wasn’t even half full, the kids were engaged, lots of “it’s behind you’s” and general screaming when a mini monster came bursting through stage.

The show was so cleverly done.  A great mix of imagination, acrobatics, dance and some very clever staging.  At first glance, the stage was made up of white panels of material which changed by having images projected on.  But behind this was some amazing scaffolding that enabled the actors to stand, lay and do acrobatics high up on it.  At some points they were seen to jump and summersault through the panels at the back of the stage.  With the use of poles that moved in and out of the stage, the Starchitects were able to drive their rocket.  Was very clever!

Of course, with a show that was aimed at kids, it wouldn’t be fair not to include the views of my 5 year old sidekick.  He thoroughly enjoyed the performance with a lot of laugh out loudness … Yes he was the child who let out his belly laugh in some of the quieter scenes after digesting what had happened.  He said it was the best show ever!  “It was a great show, the lava was the best bit.  It made me giggle and made me feel happy but the alien did scare me a bit in the beginning!  Meeting one of the characters out the front was great and I was able to ask him questions about the lava and why the lava king caused it.  I would like to go back again to see it I could” (R, aged 5).  From an adult watching, I really enjoyed the fact my child was entertained, and that the cast had so much energy throughout the performance.  It was great that for a short time after the show, the Starchitects came to meet everyone in the foyer of the theatre.  This was great, but some kids lost interest as there was a delay in the Starchitects coming out so a lot of kids left before the meet and greet.

This was a one day show, with a matinee and an early evening performance at the Lighthouse Poole and tickets ranged from £15 – £16.50. For other shows held at The Lighthouse, you can visit their website at https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/
I would give the show a 4/5 and would definitely recommend it.
The full address of the theatre is Lighthouse Arts and Entertainment, 21 Kingland Road Poole Dorset BH15 1UG

Rating: 4/5

https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/event/starchitects/

Rating: 4/5