Comic hero’s adventure is a masterpiece

3:23pm Thursday 15th November 2007

Herge's Adventures of Tintin
The Alhambra

Cry your eyes out, stamp your feet in rage, bang your head and kick yourself hard - these are all the things you'll be doing if you miss Tintin before it leaves Bradford for the bright lights of London's West End.

You have got until Saturday to treat yourself to this theatrical masterpiece - you don't need to take children with you to see it, although if you have some at home, you probably should.

Herge's adventures were brought to life by the cast from The Young Vic with vibrancy and eye-popping skill. The action was non-stop, and clever choreography and almost acrobatic moves were timed to amazing precision - to get grunts and almost audible words of admiration from two of the pre-teens I took with me is praise indeed.

Laughter, thrills, poignancy, suspense, mystery - this show had it all. The sloping stage, imaginative sets, the use of ropes in the Himalayan scenes which transported the audience to where the action was. I swear I could even feel a chilled wind blow from the mountain tops' on stage.

I don't want to give too much away but it does have a couple of scary moments - watch out for the crashed plane scene. The whole production was haunting in a very beautiful, stunning way.

Whiskey-swigging Captain Haddock looked as though he had stepped straight out of the comic-strip, Young reporter Tintin's youthful eagerness was inspiring for an old(ish!) hack, and Snowy his dog had a huge bow-WOW factor. We love you.

Runs until Saturday.

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