Review of Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince from Lamplighter Theatre

Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince is the debut Lamplighter Theatre dramatic audio story. It is of the highest caliber audio drama available. Truly an entertaining and educational story for boys and girls, young and old alike. The story is about an arrogant prince who is “kidnapped” by one of his father's knights and must humble himself to a lower life than he once lived. It has elements of the prodigal son story and a coming-of-age archetype.

Revised Album Artwork for Sir Malcolm

The story is a fantastic adaptation of the book. In terms of sound design, Lamplighter Theatre excels. Whether it is the howling of wolves or the chop of a woodcutter's ax, every sound effect and music clip helps to build the scenery in your mind.

Bad sound design and bad story pacing can confuse the listener. A typical sign of a less-than-quality audio drama is the speed at which we jump from one scene to the next. Lamplighter Theatre never suffers from this in Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince. Pacing is key to any story and it is especially important in audio drama as we have to guess what is physically occurring each moment.

As with most other Lamplighter Theatre stories, there is both a prologue and epilogue scene. While it may help younger children to better understand a story's message, these extraneous scenes often become didactic and “on-the-nose” preachy. The story of Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince would have communicated the message just as well on its own without the explanatory dialogue at the end. However, at the same time it does wrap up the story in a nice way. It gives a sense of conclusion and polish that some stories may lack.

Original Artwork for Sir Malcolm

The acting is excellent. However, some may be aggravated by the Prince's whiny attitude in the first quarter of the story. Thankfully, this does not last forever and comes to a gradual and believable turnaround in the end. His transformation from haughty to humble was predictable, but the third act of the story was satisfyingly original.

Kids of all ages will love this audio drama. The message is deep, the plot entertaining, and the sound effects and actors captivating. A few criticisms of the story are minor in comparison to the scope of this well-polished, enthralling, and meaningful audio drama. You will find yourself listening to Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince over and over again.

This review is a guest post by Robert Thacker. Robert loves all storytelling mediums; especially audio drama because it's so overlooked. He wrote the audio drama script titled "A Search for Truth," which was produced by the creators of Jonathan Park. You can take a look at it at ThackerPress.com.