one4review | On 08, Aug 2016

I saw Mr Seaward last year, which is why I came this year. This show has exactly the same energy and expansiveness as last year’s show, but compressed into a room about an eighth of the size. That’s a lot to contain in a small room, especially when it also contains a fifty-person audience (really? Fifty people in this tiny room?).

Last year it was alchemy; this year, Seaward wants to take over the world. Today he tried to do it using a chimney sweep and an audience rolling die. Apparently yesterday he tried a large haddock collider. We all have our foibles.

While I know it’s not the first time the comparison has been used, Mr Seaward is not dissimilar in powers of vocal projection (and accent) to Brian Blessed. These skills make him a shoe-in for a villain. Cue lots of nonsense, like a tank of piranha, tying up one audience member, and answering the phone of another. This is not a show to sit and quietly contemplate; there’s lots of audience interaction and participation, and it all barrels along at a rollicking pace. Leave your reservations at the door and enjoy the show.

Seaward is an assured performer, who, from greeting the audience at the door to directing them to do really silly things, absolutely takes the audience with him.

Gilded Balloon at the Counting House, 17:00

Reviewed by Laura