More Bang For Your Buck

Exciting Science

Theatre Severn

25th January 2020

Well here we are into a new year and this is my first foray back after a long and lazy seasonal period, and what a show to come back to.

Thrilling, High Octane and Exciting are some of the superlatives one can attach with a great profligacy to this brilliant new and exciting science show. Geared for the younger audience (5 to 12) Exciting Science is show that delivers exactly what it promises and the two forty minutes halves of the show fly by with all the live experiments that you wanted your science teacher to do in school but were too afraid to ask.

Hosted by two male and two female presenters for future shows a little diversity and inclusivity might not go amiss as that is something that the director will have to address before too long. There is a strong call for it in our ever changing demography. However that said this show is great. It is well conceived well written and extremely educational.

With live experiments facts and questions to the audience the stage was literally alive with things that delighted engaged and held the audience of exciting and willing subjects that filled the seats and oohed and arrrred in all the right places.

Let’s face it what’s not to like about air cannons, exploding cola and incredibly loud bangs as hydrogen balloons were expoded to indicate the catastrophic results when one mixes hydrogen with oxygen and heat?  Kaboom, kerbalammo and the percussion of the incredibly loud explosions was very satisfyingly felt right through one’s body and the warning to put fingers in ears was good advice as by the third explosion we were doing exactly as we were asked.

Fast, slick and informative. This is the way to educate, to enthral. Win your audience and hold them. Promise what is to come and keep them fully interactive by throwing questions out and getting that all important connection. Every child felt that the show had been written especially for them and they were not going to miss a moment.

In a child’s show one knows when the cast are winning as a silence descends over the wrapt kids, it is a silence that one may not experience anywhere else. A teacher would kill for that kind of attention, and I can only over the years a few teachers have!! However none of it here they were so deeply engaged.

But a show like this cannot rely on quirky presenters alone. The children instantly love  them,that’s a given: But the science behind it has to be interesting and more so, displayed in an interesting manner.

Today I discovered one is never too old to learn. I believe I took more away with me today that all my years throughout the Priory Grammar School, Oh to have been born today: Learning is fun and should always be kept as fun.

Obviously these guys weren’t teachers; they weren’t concerned about runny noses, baseball caps and playground duty. No they come on, dazzle and amaze and without the institutional constraints one might have in a school. This show in shameless staccato style hits one with fact after fact after fact. Brilliant!

This is a Four Star review

Owen  J.Lewis