Motionhouse, Starchitects Review ★★★★★

Put together five immensely engaging performers equally proficient in dance and acrobatics; visually dazzling video projections; and a story zany enough to fire off the imagination and you have Starchitects: A Cosmic Adventure, a show that held the packed QEH in thrall, kiddies and grown ups alike, for the entirely of its 55 minutes.

The story is simple, yet deeply engaging: having exhausted all their usual games in the playroom, five kids decide to build a rocket and go to the moon.There they have all manner of adventures before blasting off back to their playroom.

In their colourful playroom (set design by Simon Dorman) large cardboard boxes are put to a mind-boggling array of uses: they build a bus, a train, a boat… with a cardboard crown one performer is hailed as king; another becomes a bird held high while flapping huge cardboard wings.

Magic really happens in the central moon sequence.They travel through the cosmos in an oversize toy rocket, a clever blend of bi-dimensional video projections (Barret Hodgson, Logela Multimedia) and stage props.


Motionhouse, Starchitects. Photo: Dan Tucker
For all the impressive technical wizardry, what makes this show so engaging is the ebullience, physicality and relatability of its five performers: Alex de la Bastide, Olly Bell, Llewelyn Brown, Dylan Davies and Beth Pattison in the performance I attended.

Skilled acrobats and dancers, some of their more spectacular turns brought Ohs and Ahs from the audience; at other points in the show the children squealed with delight at the sight of adults making fools of themselves.


Motionhouse, Starchitects. Photo: Dan Tucker
Motionhouse, co-founded in 1988 by Louise Richards and Kevin Finnan, now the company’s artistic director, produces a variety of shows that range from spectaculars, such as the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympic Games, to small scale productions, such as Starchitects, which is having its London premiere during the Southbank’s Imagine Children’s Festival.

If I have a quibble about this show it relates to the sound. Relentless muzak plays throughout, making it impossible to hear what the performers are saying in the many occasions when they address the audience. I would say, either mike up the performers or tone down the music. However, this is but a quibble in what was a clever, original and very enjoyable show.