“The Tempest” by Oddsocks Productions
Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham.

The second of two nights at Lakeside following on from last night’s excellent Mods V Rockers re-telling of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet”. Tonight “The Tempest” gets the science fiction make over; boldly taking Shakespeare where no other Shakespeare play has gone before!!

In this production Prospero is marooned in a galaxy far, far away from his daughter, Miranda. Years later a spaceship, containing his enemies passes nearby and Prospero gets his chance to wreak revenge. He conjures up the force to bring his enemies to him and a meteor storm causes them to crash land, leaving them at the mercy of Prospero. It’s like Star Trek meets Star Wars meets Shakespeare with a nod to "Alien" on the way!

Even more like panto than last night but just as much fun with crazier costumes and a disappearing Ariel in Act Two.

Andy Barrow gets the lead role as Prospero in his Obi Wan Kenobi style outfit and also doubles as Scottie from Star Trek... and another accent!

Matt Penson gets to play Captain, Ferdinand as well as Ariel 3 - the disappearing one, and I love the little attention to detail as he gets the pose of Captain Kirk in his chair spot on. You can tell, as with the others, that Matt is an avid Shakespeare fan just in the way that his Shakespearean lines are delivered.

Alice Merivale plays Miranda as well as Ariel, and another cracking pair of parts she portrays with boundless energy and fun.

Amy Roberts, again gets three parts in Alonsa, Stephanie and Ariel 2.

Dom Gee Birch gets to play the fishy monster Caliban and Sebastian.

Gavin Harrison plays Antonio and Trinculo.

These actors work so well together, it's impossible to pick any particular actor, or role, to highlight over the other, so i won't even try.

As with last night, the cast also perform all of the songs live and play the instruments and we were treated to some more pop classics. Hits like Fat Larry's Band's "Zoom", Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping" and a great finale with Take That's "Rule The World".

What i also find good about this group is that they mingle in the interval with the crowd, which really makes you feel part of the gang, breaking down any barriers between the actor and their audience.

If you want to introduce your kids to Shakespeare then take them along to one of Oddsock's shows and I guarantee they will want to learn more about the man, and want more of Oddsock's unique and out of this world productions.

I for one can't wait for their winter shows.