Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Adetomiwa Edun, Femi Elufowoju Jr., Robert Gilbert, Victoria Gould, Lisa Kerr, Clive Mendus, Dan Milne, Stephen Hiscock.

There are many plays and productions that can make an audience sit up just that little bit higher in their seats and marvel at the spectacle, wonder with joy at the sheer leap in the imagination and be amazed at what the theatre company has managed to achieve in the time on stage. Complicite are no exceptions to this rule as they bring their superb adapted version of Zizou Corder’s acclaimed Lionboy to the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre.

Lionboy is a real treat, its narrative isn’t just strong and huge in scale, it strikes at some very deep personal core beliefs about humanity and where we are headed with big business and pharmaceutical companies getting ever bigger and more corporate, not guided by some altruistic belief but concerned with only making money.

Lionboy itself relied upon the one single thing that marks out great theatre above a lot of artistic endeavours and that is the power to dream, to get so involved with the characters on stage that what an audience visualises carries the production and its cast in a tidal wave of pure quality. It does not require imagination though to understand why the play works so well, the effort placed by each member of the team, from the back stage crew to those out front giving more than a pound of flesh and sweat each as the utter physical nature of the production grew and grew. The pride in their work was evident throughout and in the wonderful Adetomiwa Edun, who excelled beyond belief as the hero of the piece Charlie Ashanti, the company had a lead man who roared as loud as any lion could but who also sparked off each and every member of the cast with a gracious and stunning sophistication.

Chief amongst these was the superb Robert Gilbert making a very welcome return to The Playhouse theatre since delighting audiences as Prince Charming in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto in 2011. His portrayal as Rafi Sadler was first rate and whilst he may have portrayed one of the villains of the piece, there was a certain glint in his eye that showed the assembled crowd that he was more than capable of making them fall for his loveable scamp act.

An exotic and wonderful play, full of drama and quality throughout.

Ian D. Hall