Lionboy, Unicorn Theatre - theatre review

Adapted from Zizou Corder’s bestselling trilogy of children’s books, physical theatre pioneers Complicite’s first family show, Lionboy, is a wonderfully imaginative adventure that takes the premise of a child’s ability to speak to cats and expands it into unexpected territory.

In a dystopian near future, our hero Charlie (Adetomiwa Edun of Merlin fame) travels to France in search of his scientist parents — never seen but heard via recordings by the voices of Adrian Lester and Emma Thompson— who have been abducted by a sinister pharmaceutical company called the Corporacy.

On his journey he meets a group of lions in a travelling circus, downtrodden by trainer Muccomo (Femi Elufowoju Jr). Charlie resolves to liberate the pride before raiding Corporacy HQ with the help of an alley cat and a multi-lingual chameleon.

Edun doubles up as the lions themselves, evoking the sense of their power and majesty through switches in physicality and Stephen Hiscock’s rousing live percussion.

Marcelo Dos Santos’s adaption stumbles towards the end when it becomes an overly simplistic ya-boo to the Big Bad Establishment, but for the most part Annabel Arden’s production is shaped with delicacy and nuance.

Until July 21 (020 7645 0560, unicorntheatre.com)