Reviews

Discover what Shire’s team thought of the concerts, live events and theatre shows they’ve seen over the past couple of months at local venues If you have a show in the Shire area, we can send a reviewer – and your show can appear on these pages too! Email editorial@ shiremagazine.co.uk. Get in touch!

RUNNING WILD AT BEWILDERWOOD

After a long winter, a day out at BeWILDerwood was just the tonic. Set in 70 acres of woodland in Cholmondeley, Cheshire, the place is full of wooden treehouses, sky mazes, slides and zip wires. Twiggles, Boggles and Crocklebogs from the enchanting books by creator Tom Blofeld pop up throughout the woods.

We took three children aged 10 to 14 – and the teens had as much fun as the younger one. Adults can join in too. We squealed down the drop slides, got lost in the maze and all piled onto the giant swing. The children shouted and laughed for the four hours we were there.

There are lots of activities at ground level too, from den building to storytelling and craft tents. No technology, theme park rides or plastic tat in the gift shop – just good, old-fashioned fun that left them with rosy cheeks and beaming faces. AB HHHHH

Cheshire.bewilderwood.co.uk

CIRCUS FUNTASIA LIVES UP TO ITS NAME

I haven’t been to the circus since I can’t remember when, and to my shame I realised my kids had never been, so it was great to have the chance to see Circus Funtasia in Telford.

The 20-strong cast are all multi-skilled performers, many doing several acts. In the

intimate confines of the Big Top, you really get to look ex-professional gymnast and now aerial acrobat Lucy Ladbrooke in “Lucy flies the eye as she flies above the audience. With an uplifting over the soundtrack, plenty of crowd” fire and performers who seemed like friends by the end of the almost two-hour show, we couldn’t help but be impressed by the spectacle of it all. HG HHHHH

CIRQUE DU VULGAR OSWESTRY SHOWGROUND

Circus Funtasia has a sister act, strictly for adults only. Featuring the same cast in the same Big Top location, on Saturday night all the afternoon’s childfriendly capers transform into drunken debauchery.

Ushered inside by actors in varying stages of undress, who proceed to drink, argue and fornicate in the seating even before the show starts, it’s all a bit unsettling and you wonder what you’re in for. But when the shows starts it is spectacular – death-defying fire and high-wire acts, and

feats of skill, all interspersed with great comic timing and some very rude “Trapeze in a very jokes indeed. Not for the faint-hearted, hugely revealing original and just kilt” great fun. We loved it, and the audience was cheering and applauding each new act until the ‘wheel of death’ finale featuring a male trapeze artist in a very revealing kilt. DB cirqueduvulgar.com HHHHH

DOM JOLY’S HOLIDAY SNAPS AT MARKET DRAYTON FESTIVAL CENTRE

Dom Joly has visited 126 countries and Festival Centre volunteer Dave Hewitt 127. But Dom’s show was subtitled Travel and Comedy in the Danger Zone and Dave laughed and shuddered through the journey as much as anyone.

Well known for his wild pranks in the hit show Trigger Happy TV, Joly’s mischievous daring and comic touch were as sharp as ever. He brought to life his travels to a deserted Chernobyl, the killing fields of Cambodia and a cave in the

Syrian desert – along with a trip whose sole purpose was to ‘scare an Eskimo’. The transatlantic practical “Crass, joke was crass, juvenile juvenile and very funny” and very funny. Joly’s narrative and PowerPoint started with Tintin, books he devoured as a child through three years of civil war in Lebanon. Perhaps they helped develop his attraction for the surreal as well as for danger. JH HHHH

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