Delicious fun in interactive one-man performance at Warwick Arts Centre

Do you remember those games you used to play when you were a kid? You’d take on the roles of heroes you saw on TV. If you played with an older brother, chances are sooner or later he’d drift off on to other things; girls maybe, school work, eventually a job.

Andy Roberts remembers playing a game with his brother Steve, based on the 1980s action thriller, Predator. In the film Arnie and his crew of mavericks hunt down a mysterious alien invader that has landed in the jungle. Each side is hell bent on destruction. Explosions, guns, helicopters, heroism a-plenty. Great stuff, though maybe more so if you were a boy.

Here on stage Andy recreates the game he never finished. He invites volunteers from the audience to help him play out the parts of the team. Dutch, Poncho, Dillon, Anna, they’re all there, recreated in front of your eyes using technology such as a plastic palm tree, a radio controlled helicopter, Action Men, desk lamps and an array of cardboard cut-outs and guns.

It’s all delicious fun, and here on stage Andy gets to bring his long suspended game to fulfilment. The whole audience gets to play along too, entering into his fraternal bedroom that becomes, in the blink of an eye, a tropical jungle. Truly, this is the stuff that dreams are made of.

We love our childhood games. They never leave us. And I so want one of those radio controlled helicopters.

Nick Le Mesurier