I admit I wasn’t familiar with the Octonauts but I happily joined the ranks of cadets at Richmond Theatre yesterday afternoon. The show is based on the Ceebeebies TV show, which used real life marine biologists to ensure that kids learned the right stuff about the underwater world.
The characters are interesting – I loved all the different accents (American, Australian, Liverpudlian, Scottish, South American, Welsh): Captain Barnacles (Polar Bear), Kwazii (a pirate cat), Peso the medic (penguin), Professor Inkling (octopus), Dr Shellington (sea otter), Tweak (an engineer rabbit who sounds like Scotty from Star Trek), Dachi (IT expert dog) and the excitable Tunip (who is half vegetable, half animal). Their motto of “Explore. Rescue, Protect” hinted a little at the conservationist message.
The story line kept our attention – there was a deep sea volcano and once they were sure that the sleepy land tortoises were safe, the focus was on rescuing the other underwater creatures and reuniting the cute blobfish Bob with his friends. The set was great – the bridge of the Octopod with screens showing the instruments and the view of the sea creatures outside. Clever graphics. I also really liked the creative theatrical elements showing a range of deep sea creatures – including angler fish.
Judging by the enthusiastic shouting and non-stop giggles from the two to four year old children all around me the show was an absolute hit. Naturally, the parents enjoyed watching their kids joining in with all the actions and singing and having such fun too.
The young lad sat next to me was absorbed in applying the themed stickers to the programme during the interval. I was surprised at the quality of the singing – the songs were better than you often hear at kids’ shows and there were some reasonable harmonies in there too.
The show runs for an hour and 15 minutes which includes an interval so there’s no chance that your kids will get fidgety.
There are performances today at Richmond Theatre at 1pm and 4pm. Future tour dates near London include:
2-3 May New Wimbledon Theatre
6-7 June Hackney Empire
http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/octonauts-and-the-deep-sea-volcano-adventure/
http://octonautslive.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/octonauts
