Children's theatre is not as easy to get right as some people might think. Children's theatre should be as captivating, stimulating and clever as theatre for adults. Thankfully Les Petits get it 100% right in their swashbuckling new adventure Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs 2: The Magic Cutlass, a sequel based on Giles Andreae and Russell Ayto's much loved children's book.
While preparing for their school play, Flinn and his friends Pearl and Tom get whisked away and find themselves on a pirate ship surrounded by a gang of dopey dinos. The most fearsome (but still pretty silly) dino named Captain T-Rex forces Flinn to recover the lost magic cutlass from the bottom of the ocean, or see his friends turned into sausages! The plot is wonderfully zany, with enough twists and turns, jokes and theatrical magic to keep children (and parents) excited and engaged throughout.
The production is wonderfully vibrant, with excellent costumes, atmospheric lighting and some shadow puppetry that will astound children! A particularly spectacular scene which shows Flinn journeying beneath the waves to seek out the magic cutlass is presented very inventively, and the dinosaurs' arrival is intriguing too. The use of puppetry in the show is uniformly brilliant, and is just one of the show's many outstanding features.
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| Photo Credit - The Other Richard |
Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs 2 features loads of brilliant, catchy songs which the dynamic cast of 4 perform skillfully. The songs are not only catchy, they're also very smart. Children will wants to jump up and down and dance to the dino ditties.
Despite being advertised as a show for children aged 2 and above, the production does get a tiny bit scary at points. The dinosaurs' arrival is particularly creepy, with the audience being shown just a glimpse of a tail or the shadow of a claw before the hero and his friends are abducted one by one. The scene is not as sinister as it sounds, but it is accompanied by copious amounts of artificial fog, and tense eerie music, and some very young children might find it a bit too much. That being said, once introduced properly, the dinosaur pirate crew are more lovable than they are scary, even though they do have their moments as the villains of the piece.
Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs 2 is a model example of just how magical children's theatre can be. This joyful, exciting and engaging show is not to be missed. Catch it at the Pleasance Courtyard at at 10:30am every day until the 29th!
