Terry Deary's Horrible Histories have made history exciting for kids for many years so it was inevitable that the child-orientated Birmingham Stage Company would put them on stage. Last year they brought The Terrible Tudors to the Empire to great acclaim and now it's the turn of The Awful Egyptians and The Rotten Romans.
And great fun it is too! The audience - both adults and children - loved it, and it succeeded in getting the story of the Egyptians, from the joining together of Upper and Lower Egypt to Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, across to the young audience - and their parents.
Using comedy, pantomime, the amazing Bogglevision and straightforward narration, the show's pace never flagged and held the interest throughout. The cast of five - Ciaran McConville, Mehdi Rezvan, Alison Fitzjohn, Abi Rahman (who looks very like Craig Charles) and Laurence Moran - have tremendous energy and achieved a good rapport with the audience from the off.
This is excellent children's theatre: educational and hugely entertaining.