WE all want to meet people from history. The trouble is everyone is dead! Step forward Terry Deary to turn history into his stories, or more precisely Horrible Histories.
Two instalments, Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians, will be re-enacted at the Grand Opera House, York, from today to Saturday with a combination of three hard-working actors and ground-breaking 3D special effects in the Birmingham Stage Company production.
Historical figures and events will “come alive on stage and hover at your fingertips” as Terrible Tudors takes the audience from the horrible Henries to the end of evil Elizabeth, in a chance to hear the legends and the lies about the torturing Tudors.
Deary invites you to find out the fate of Henry VIII’s headless wives and learn of his punch- up with the Pope; then meet Bloody Mary, see Ed fall dead in his bed and survive the Spanish Armada as it sails into the audience.
Earful: Lisa Allen, Izaak Cainer, centre, and Simon Nock in Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors. Picture: Mark Douet
From the fascinating Pharaohs to the power of the pyramids, Awful Egyptians lets you discover the foul facts of death and decay with the meanest mummies in Egypt. Are you ready to rumble with Ramesses the Great? Dare you enter through the Gates of the Afterlife? Prepare for the history of Egypt, re-told with the nasty bits left in.
North Yorkshire actor Izaak Cainer is part of the cast of three, touring nationwide alongside Simon Nock and Lisa Allen. “We’ve been touring for six weeks now and we’re loving it,” he says. “It’s the same cast in both shows, doing all the multi-role playing, all the silly voices and having great fun with all the breakneck costume changes.
“Terrible Tudors is in the vaudevillian mould with quick, quick changes, whereas Awful Egyptians is more of an adventure story and conventional play. If you see both shows in the week, you’ll have two very different experiences.”
Izaak last appeared on a York stage in the 2015 revival of York Theatre Royal’s The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum, playing the youngest child, Peter, as he looked back on his childhood days.
Izaak Cainer, as Peter, in E Nesbit's The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum, York, with Beth Lily and Rozzie Nicholson in 2015
Now he stars in another transition of a children’s favourite from page to stage. “This is the first time I’ve worked with the Horrible Histories company, but I've grown up reading the books and seeing the TV shows, so it's initially an odd feeling being on stage doing something you read when you were younger, though I did that with The Railway Children too of course," he says.
Izaak Cainer, as Peter, in E Nesbit's The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum, York, with Beth Lilly, left, and Rozzi Nicholson-Lailey in 2015. Picture: Anthony Robling
Izaak had auditioned for Horrible Histories previously. "I wrote a piece in the style of a Horrible Histories comedy monologue, but [director] Neal Foster said, 'you're not right for this particular show, but since you've written such a good monologue, we'll have you in a future show!" he recalls.
"I've always enjoyed character comedy roles, as my talent at drama school was being able to do lots of accents. I do 13 different ones in Terrible Tudors, so I'm scraping the barrel of my range with the weakest at the end!
"Yorkshire is obviously my strongest, but I could probably offend plenty of French people with my cod French executioner."
Izaak is in Horrible Histories for the long run. "It's the longest tour I've ever done, right through to the end of November next year, with five weeks off around Christmas and five weeks next summer," he says.
Since The Railway Children, Izaak has worked with Secret Cinema, done some television work and even made a brief foray into stand-up comedy on the London circuit.
"Nothing prepares you for that, because though you're familiar with being on stage, it's completely alien to you doing it alone, when it's just you and you've written it, but when a joke lands, it's one of the most satisfying feelings you could have," he says.
"There was enough there to give me hope that it's not a lost cause, and I'm hoping to write more material while I'm on tour."
Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians, Grand Opera House, York, tonight to Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york
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