In case you hadn’t heard, the popular childrens book series Tom Gates has made it to the theatre and is touring the UK.
We were lucky enough to get to go and watch this at The Richmond Theatre this week, it was a bit of a last minute plan for us and I only told the girls when I picked them up from school. Richmond is a 1hr 14 min drive (on a clear day) round the M25 from Kent, so we needed to get going pretty quickly as I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic and miss the start of the show. The M25 was surprisingly clear and we arrived in Richmond shortly after 6.30pm and parked in the ‘Old Deer Park’ Car park which is free from 6.30pm – always a bonus! The theatre was just a short 2min walk from the car park and we arrived at the theatre in plenty of time to pick up our tickets, buy a programme and get it signed by the author of the Tom Gates book series, Liz Pichon. I think Chloe was a little star struck meeting Liz, as she is a big fan of the books.
We quickly took our seats in the dress circle and waited excitedly for the show to begin!
And wow what a show!! The set design was fantastic and so cleverly done, bringing the animation from the books to life. The story is not one from the books but was written specifically for the stage, but still includes all the favourite characters from the books and of course the not so favourite, and I have to agree with Tom quite annoying class swot, Marcus Meldrew. My girls (both 13) and I were hooked from the start and was rooting for Tom to lose those sad faces and hoping that he still got to go on the school trip!
The energy from the whole cast was high throughout for this fast paced story. Both Girls gave it a big thumbs up and rated it 10/10 and I think I would have to agree.
Tom Gates is touring the UK, check out The Birmingham Stage Company website for dates and to purchase tickets.