Using the same format of actors and ground-breaking 3D special effects seen last year on The Awful Egyptians and The Ruthless Romans, the new production by Neal Foster will make historical figures and events from the Tudor and Victorian periods come alive on stage.

As the legends (and the lies) of the torturing Tudors are played out on stage, audiences will find out the fate of Henry VIII's headless wives and dodge the Spanish Armada that sails into the audience and its cannonballs which will seem to shoot straight over their heads…

You can also discover if the Victorians could have actually survived the filth of the 19th century factories and the misery of the mines. Audiences will find out find what a baby farmer did and be taken on a ride on the rotten railway, Victorian slums, sewers, ghosts and graveyards. There will be some seriously silly music hall songs and a re-enactment of the charge of the Light Brigade…

Terry Deary is the world's best-selling non-fiction author for children and one of the most popular children's authors in the country. He has written more than 140 books which have been translated into 30 different languages from Chinese to Spanish. In 2003 all 10 children's non-fiction books in the Bookseller charts were by Deary and in both 2003 and 2004 he was the most borrowed non-fiction author (children or adult books) in British libraries. Terrible Tudors was also voted 'Best Book of Knowledge of All Time' by Blue Peter viewers.

There will be performances of Terrible Tudors at the Lyceum on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Wednesday morning. Vile Victorians is on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, Friday evening and Saturday matinee and evening.