Review written by Flossie Waite
A Wardrobe Ensemble production
Reviewed at Mini VAULT Festival
For ages 4+

So, we’re on a distant planet. It’s made of wood and inhabited by an alien called Toilet. Toilet needs help paying off some debts, so of course we suggest it uses the clouds which are made of golden eggs. But how do we get to them? Climb up the toast, of course! If this sounds like it’s straight from the imagination of a fanciful child, you’d be right: The Star Seekers is a highly interactive production which uses audience suggestions to create a lot of the content. Children are bound to love it, because they come up with a lot of it!

Set in Waterloo Space Station (who knew they were hiding that in the Vaults?), we are all instantly star seekers, with special astronaut name badges as proof. Our first mission is to help fellow cosmonauts Alph (Andrew Kelly), Betty (Jesse Meadows) and Gamma (Jack Drewry) to find the three orbs that will fix the Infinite Energy Fusion Drive. It’s a quest that takes us across solar systems, into Black Holes, onto planets and amongst stars.

The narrative is a loose structure for this highly collaborative performance. As such, it’s fairly formulaic, allowing the originality and flair to come straight from the young star seekers in the audience. But it just proves that you don’t need much: all it takes is a pleasingly-DIY set (surely most of us have tried to make a cardboard control panel at some point?), Drewry’s atmospherically futuristic soundtrack, space-savvy performers, and lift-off – the audience do the rest!

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