{"id":203610,"date":"2025-06-21T22:30:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T22:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/203610\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T22:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T22:30:19","slug":"fantasy-world-adventures-mega-park-stageleeds-stage-one-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/203610\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy World Adventures Mega Park! – Stage@Leeds Stage One Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creators: Abbie Freeston and Matthew Stanley<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fantasy World Adventures Mega Park! at Stage@Leeds is less an immersive comic fantasy and more an exhausting exercise in theatrical confusion. It quickly becomes clear that, what is billed as an epic journey through the magical realms of carnival antics, is, in reality, a chaotic parade of half-baked ideas, directionless performances and a production that feels allergic to coherence \u2013 the only comedic elements being the campy choreography, performed here by a troupe of non-dancers. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t end here, so buckle up and pull down your safety bars. <\/p>\n

The narrative is a tangled mess of tired clich\u00e9s and inexplicable detours \u2013 audiences are whipped between settings with no logic, no stakes and absolutely no emotional investment. One minute, a discount theme park CEO sings something unintelligible about destiny; the next, a Veruca Salt-esque character screams her way through a number about her inability to hook-a-duck. It\u2019s like someone poorly blended physical theatre and coupled it with a daft Kids TV show. This greatly underdeveloped show clearly had its producers delete the plot and, as a self-funded passion project, not even the biggest of budgets can save it. Still, this company seem to be having the time of their lives. <\/p>\n

The cast, delivering lines with the passion of a GCSE drama class, have no middle ground, no consistency, and certainly no believable chemistry between anyone on stage or with the audience. It\u2019s a story that doesn\u2019t make sense and one that simply doesn\u2019t need telling. <\/p>\n

Visually, the production is tragic. Costumes appeared to be thrifted on a dare, props looked one sneeze away from collapse, and the set design was so awkwardly used that it becomes a distraction. The idea that the audience are supposed to imagine a Theme Park through physicality whilst staring at a black box in a cardboard city is bonkers. Lighting and sound cues are either mistimed or completely ignored, leading to jarring transitions and poorly timed mic cues.<\/p>\n

What should have been an exciting escape into a fantasy world of funfair frolics ends up feeling like a poorly conceived school play stretched far beyond its limits.In short, Fantasy World Adventures Mega Park!, or FWAMP! as the cool kids call it, isn\u2019t just a disappointment. It\u2019s a baffling, misguided spectacle that leaves its audience dazed and disoriented.<\/p>\n

Perhaps written as a hobby or a bit of fun, it feels thrown together on a whim, the themes being as ridiculous as the show\u2019s title. Writers Abbie Freeston and Matthew Stanley are no Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow. This new musical has Edinburgh Fringe aspirations, it\u2019s only saving grace being the 2 people accompanying your critic. They seem to invest in this show with relish. The rest of the audience, clearly filled with fellow students, friends and family, were whooping and cheering along, which begs the question \u2013 were we watching the same show?<\/p>\n

Runs until 21st June 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Creators: Abbie Freeston and Matthew Stanley Fantasy World Adventures Mega Park! at Stage@Leeds is less an immersive comic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[82099,748,393,82100,82101,4884,1860,29451,82102,28222,82103,29454,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-203610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-abbie-freeston","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fantasy-world-adventures-mega-park","12":"tag-fwamp","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-lucy-moss","16":"tag-matthew-stanley","17":"tag-six","18":"tag-stageleeds","19":"tag-toby-marlow","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114723725685961348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}