Hi Everyone, and welcome back to another review! This time it is for something a little different but great and brilliant all the same.

I got the chance to go and see ‘Bring Back ChainMail’ at The Mercury Theatre in Colchester, and for those of you who don’t fancy a long read at the moment then it was one of the best things I have seen this year!

For those of you who fancy a long read, here it goes: Written, and starring Tommy Campe, comes the story of James, a normal teenager, who has an obsession and fascination with the medieval period. So much so that he has turned his bedroom into a medieval kingdom of his own. With help of his loyal friend Sophie or Bard as she is known to him played brilliantly by Megan Risley, he can bring his fantasy world to life!

But there is a whole other reason why this kingdom exists, downstairs, James’ dad has to come to terms with the loss of his wife and James’ mother due to a terminal illness. Due to this, they are both further apart as a father and son can be. But through this play, they become closer as a family, thanks to James’ dad embracing his son’s magical world!

This show deals with the subject of death and grief and what it can do to the people left behind, and it captures all this beautifully. It has a lovely neutral progression, but can understandably be triggering for some.

This show is also in collaboration with Autism Anglican and I feel this show delivers a great representation of how someone with Autism might deal with the loss of a loved one, but also how loved ones around them can love and support them.

I went to a ‘relaxed performance’ of this show, where people were able to come and go as they pleased if they ever needed to, and people did, but this didn’t take anything away from the show, and was lovely to see a chill out area outside the studio with chairs and water should people need it, which was excellent to see. You could that they thought about people with autism and other disabilities.

I strongly believe that this show needs another national-wide run as well as schools, and maybe for those who struggle to get to the theatre, later on down the line, with maybe some more financial backing it would help make ‘Bring Back Chainmail’ bigger and better than it already is, and give it the springboard it truly deserves!

I am not sure, if or when this will happen, but it needs to so that more and more people experience the joy and spectacular of this marvellous show!

Until Next time!
The VI Critic