Review: The Time Seekers, Wardrobe Theatre

Would you like to take a trip back in time? Would you let the clock’s hands spin back thousands of years and carry you deep into the fog of ancient history? You could walk like an ancient Egyptian, roam with a real Roman and, if you are feeling particularly brave, soar with a dinosaur!

Or instead we could go tumbling forward into the deep uncertainty of the future? And maybe there we’d meet humanoid robots and flying cars and hear some kinda funky future music?

OK, that sounds like a bit much. Maybe we’re better off just staying put in the present. After all, although the present isn’t always relaxing, what with all the honking horns, beating hearts, people rushing around and just general simultaneousness of it all, at least you know where you stand with the present. You stand right here reading another brilliant Bristol 24/7 review.

The only problem is: We haven’t really got a choice! Professor Professor has been on the phone and the pieces of her Nano Chrono Clock have been scattered through time and space. If we don’t get them back before tea, the very workings of time will break down! And then we won’t be able to get to Gammo’s birthday party, which is tomorrow!

Therefore Alph (Ben Vardy), Betty (Jesse Meadows) and Gammo (Helena Middleton) recruit all the Time Seekers that just so happen to be packed into the Wardrobe Theatre to take a journey on a swirling, crackling, disco-dancing, joyful time machine. This show is delightful, and genuinely educational (who would have thought it would take a washing line to finally get the big bang straight in my head?).

Audience interaction comes in many forms, aided by some really snazzy voice-altering sound effects and a venue that’s just cosy enough that everyone gets to be involved. Giving live microphones to nine-year-olds introduces reliable moments of dramatic bite into this wholesome family performance, including pronouncements that the present is “depressing” or that the future will involve “robot nuclear war.” Interventions are expertly handled, and songs, games and dances arrive seamlessly in way that feels like the audience is playing with the cast, not just watching a performance.

It was a sunny, windy day on Tuesday, and after our matinee performance me and my five-year-old went running off to the park, bleeping our digi watches and roaring like dinosaurs as our malfunctioning time machine sent a stream of objects from the future crashing down around us. Although it happened an hour after we left the theatre, it was one of the best bits of the show, and the Wardrobe Ensemble deserve full credit for creating such a vivid playscape. Thoroughly recommended.

The Time Seekers continues at the Wardrobe Theatre until Sunday, April 8. For more info and to book tickets, visit thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/the-time-seekers

Read more: Bristol’s Insight Ensemble on their new show The Dawn of Time