HORRIBLE SCIENCE

Birmingham Stage Company at the Civic Theatre

10.11.10

Did you know, bacteria divide and conquer – start with one, and overnight you've 16 million.

Horrible Science took over the Civic last week, and I joined six excited schools to see science come alive on stage.

Based on the best-selling books by Nick Arnold, Mark Williams's adaptation takes us through theme park zones. Our guides are boffins, plus EveryBoy Billy Miller and the unseen and sinister Intelligent Machine - “you must understand,” he intones.

The ghoulish Blood, Bones and Body Bits zone was received with noisy enthusiasm; it featured the first sequence in Bogglevision [TM], the 3D effect first seen in the Horrible Histories franchise.

Back projection means that lighting is side-on and subdued, so even with all the gung-ho overacting, it's not easy to build your rapport with the audience.

Gareth Warren was Billy, Neal Foster the voice of T.I.M., leaving Laura Dalgleish, Sarah Nightingale and Benedict Martin to play the scientists, the Germs, Frankenstein and all the rest. The Stunning Science of Everything was directed by Phil Clark, with music by Matthew Scott and design by Jackie Trousdale.

For all the bangs and whizzes and pantomime antics, this is really a Junior School science lesson, complete with revision and a test at the end …