Theatre Review: Here Be Monsters, Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Jan 24 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Rejects Revenge perform, Here Be Monsters, at the Unity Theatre _320

IS IT possible to send a steam-powered spaceship to the moon? Dr Frederick Watt believes it can be done. But, then, in Here Be Monsters, he is living in the Edwardian age when writers like HG Wells imagined scientists could do all sorts.

The latest show by Liverpool’s Rejects Revenge company is actually powered by 21st-century theatre technology. Lots of hi-tech gimmicks and gadgetry keep the production alive.

Written by Tim Hibberd, it boasts a delightful Edwardian living room set in which early arrivals can watch the doctor shuffle round the room.

There is a roaring fire (actually a projection), comfy chairs, potted plants, a chess set, a bicycle and something large hidden under a cover.

The delivery man Robert Evans arrives with some groceries and gets involved in Watt’s mad scheme to fly to the moon and back by teatime.

Indeed, he has turned the room into a spaceship and it is already moon-bound but, as Evans points out, he is not going to make the return trip by teatime – the steam-powered room is travelling at just 26 mph.

Of such wild nonsense does Here Be Monsters consist, a sort of HG Wells meets the Marx Brothers with a touch of Monty Python thrown in.

Unlike some other Rejects shows, this is dialogue-heavy, at times too much so, the conversational jokes about the two characters’ names, Watt and Evans (“Good Evans”, etc) overplayed.

But there is a lot of technical fun, including a painting that doubles as a screen showing Watt’s moving pictures (mictures, he calls them) and even the moon landing itself. Smoke billows out of instruments and the hidden item is revealed as a control panel using every peculiar object imaginable.

Liam Tobin plays Watt in high-flown Edwardian style, while Sean Kearney, as Evans, is more down-to-earth, and while not every gag works, this is an intriguing piece with a nice twist in the end.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk