The Time Seekers at The Wardrobe Theatre

I’m very aware that it wont be much longer that my two girls can both enjoy the same theatre show, with my eldest being eight and youngest five. For this show at the Wardrobe, my eldest just fitted into the age recommendation and my youngest was smack bang in the middle of it, so I was curious to see if The Time Seekers would engage them both. The Wardrobe Ensemble is following on from the success of their previous show The Star Seekers with this time travelling adventure where the Time Seekers must travel into the past and the future to save the world. We join Alf, Betty and Gammo as they discover dinosaurs, find out how quiet the world was before everything began, decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics and meet a robot from the future who just wants to make everyone dance. We the audience of fellow time seekers are part of this adventure and we are all very much in it together.

We love the Wardrobe Theatre; it’s a perfect venue for kids theatre in particular as it can fit a good size audience in whilst still feeling intimate and friendly. The Time Seekers is also a great little show, and I’m pleased to say that my eldest enjoyed it as much as her younger sister did. This is not an easy balance as she is just entering into the territory where she wants to be ‘cool’ and can roll her eyes at things that seem too young for her. She was up dancing, happy to shout out with the rest of the audience and particularly liked the section where we travelled to the beginning of the universe as she could show off her knowledge of the Big Bang theory! My youngest loved the section with the dinosaurs, as did most of the audience, but then I think the actors knew that this subject matter was a dead cert for this age group. Yes, the company clearly knows their target audience, and are brilliant at engaging them and making them feel involved and immersed in the show. This is very much a collaborative piece of theatre where the audience is encouraged to interact and make suggestions to help drive the story forward. I loved that the actors from the Wardrobe Ensemble seemed unfazed by everything that was thrown at them, even if the suggestions were nonsensical. (My daughter was the one who said that you should distract the Sandwichosaurus by putting cheese sandwiches in front of its eyes. Sorry about that. Also, who knew that chocolate is slow but bananas are fast?!)

The Time Seekers was a hit with my little family. This is a funny, silly, gentle treat, which is visual enough for the younger ones but has enough to keep slightly older ones entertained too. Its on until Sunday 8th April and you can book tickets by following this link.

Review by Karen Blake