Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain is "a romp through 2000 years of British history", co-writer, director and producer Neal Foster says.

Horrible Histories has a not inconsiderable history of its own. Terry Deary wrote the series of children's books two decades ago, the stage shows have been running for a decade, and the television series, unrelated to the stage version, has been running for six years.

"We work very closely with Terry," Foster says. "Our shows are very much based on the books. If you like the TV series, you'll love Barmy Britain. They're very similar in style."

Although four performers, including Foster, are touring, only two will appear in each show. This small-scale approach helps convey the feeling that they are performing to and for the audience, not each other, he says.

They come on stage and take the audience on a journey through history. It begins with Boudicca's crushing defeat of the Romans and ends with Queen Victoria doing a rap. The men tend to come off less well.

"I do love playing Dick Turpin, William Burke, Guy Fawkes – there aren't many goodies in this show."

Whether it's Henry VIII and his chop-and-change way of dealing with six wives, or Burke and Hare murdering 16 people and selling the corpses to doctors for anatomical dissection, the show certainly lives up to its title. There's plenty that's both horrible and barmy in the show.

"Guy Fawkes is as camp as a row of tents," Foster says. That characterisation may or may not be true, and he is presented on a game show called Who Wants to Blow Up Parliament? but "everything he talks about is very accurate".

It's a point of pride for Foster that the information in the show is historically correct, even though the presentation is designed to be entertaining, with plenty of 3D visual effects.

Some heroes are shown to have a darker side, such as Richard the Lionheart, who killed 2700 Muslim prisoners during a release negotiation because he was impatient to continue to the Holy Land.

Historical facts like that can resonate in the present, Foster says, with similarities and differences to be noted, such as the destructive effects of ebola now and the deadly plague that killed millions of people during the 14th century.

"There are strange parallels with today. When you research quite strongly, it gives you a clear idea of how we got here, and no matter how much we complain about modern life, when you see the show, you 'll think, `I'm quite glad I live in 2015 and not 1515 or 1815'."

The show is far from being deadly serious, though. "It's gory and rude and occasionally disgusting. Poo features, and so does farting," but in perfectly legitimate historical ways, such as Elizabeth I abolishing the position of the Groom of the King's Stool, one of whose duties it was to wipe the king's bottom.

Such details are aimed to pique the interest of the target audience – children – but the show is designed to appeal to all ages, Foster says. Parents can enjoy it along with their children and maybe even learn a thing or two.

There's a lot of audience participation, from singing to a child from the audience being "cured" of the Black Death using methods common at the time, such as "whipping the sin out". On the latter subject, the origin of the term "whipping boy" is also explored.

Barmy Britain is the most successful of the Horrible Histories shows. It began as a 40-minute performance in London's Regent Park for a children's summer festival in 2012 and moved to the West End as an hour-long show the next year, running for nine months at the Garrick Theatre, the longest-running children's show in West End history.

Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain – was staged last year and then the two shows were combined to create one big production that toured Britain, before coming to Australia.

Foster worked as an actor and ran theatre companies before establishing the Birmingham Stage Company as the new resident company of The Old Rep Theatre, which had been dark for 20 years, in 1992.

It has presented a wide variety of plays, including works by William Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams and David Mamet, but a sign of the emphasis to come arrived early.

"Our first Christmas show was Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox – 18,000 people came to see it and the theatre could only seat 376."

The company has since produced many children's shows, including various instalments of Horrible Histories – it's now halfway through a 20-year contract with Deary.

"We just finished Horrible Christmas. It was our bestselling show in 23 years."

Foster says he loves playing to children.

Unlike an adult, a child in the audience has no compunction about talking, coughing or going to the toilet during the performance if bored. "He or she must be kept rapt from beginning to end.

"It's nonsense that children aren't able to concentrate."

In Britain, the show went up to World War I, but Foster didn't think it would work to include the conflict here without mention of Australia's role in it. So apart from a painless introduction to or reminder of some key historical figures, what else might our audiences get out of Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain

"You just might find out why you decided to rule your own country . . . when you see how barmy Britain is."