MAGIC GOES WRONG

There was a moment at the end of the show when the actors thanked us all for coming and paid tribute to the return of live theatre. The audience cheered. But they had been cheering for most of the evening.

‘Magic Goes Wrong’ is the latest in the successful disaster play franchise. It takes the basic building blocks so successfully laid by the late great Tommy Cooper who taught us that ‘bad magic’ can be hilarious. Getting tricks to go wrong to order takes a huge amount of skill and no wonder the production has the support of those great American illusionist Penn and Teller. The basic conceit is disarmingly simple (talking of which one of the hapless magicians does indeed ‘lose’ a limb in one of the many disaster-prone examples of trickery pokery). The show is billed as a charity gig to support the ‘many’ sad folk who have lost their lives to the cause of stage magic. Much black comedy is to be had in seemingly fatal tricks – a ‘sawing in half’ act that has a grim denouement, some rogue backfiring with a set of knives and comical tension over a magician caught in a locked water tank.

If the show has a weakness, it is in the lack of a clear narrative drive. This is basically panto without a story although there is a nod towards one involving the master of ceremonies and his late father who was it seems a much better magician. This is all mightily unconvincing - willing suspension of disbelief has its limits. The show would have been immeasurably strengthened with more backstage drama allowing us to get to know the stage performers.

Essentially the two-act show is just that – a series of fake acts each of which as the title says, ‘go wrong’. Each of the performers gives it everything they have. David Nellist was hilarious as the useless mind reader whose life is similarly coming unstuck. There was much fun to be had in his gremlin-infested autocue and for all the absurdity of his role he managed to elicit a genuine sympathy for his very public failures on stage.

Sam Hill certainly held the stage as the lead magician with a father complex and there was much showbiz showmanship in the ‘German’ pair of performers, Spitzmaus and Bar. They played with huge energy and endless elaborate poses by Jocelyn Prah and Chloe Tannenbaum. One thing that slightly jarred here, however, was a rather atavistic set of comic foreigners gags.

That said, there were lots of good laugh out loud gags to be had: an electronic score board showing how little the public were supporting the cause of magic-related fatalities (the numbers rapidly sank into the red); a set of silly antics over health and safety rules as the lady was cut in two and a very funny ‘solemn’ tribute to the many people who had died during magic acts (most of them during the interval of this play!)

A set of spectacular magic stunts and a wonderfully garish 1980s stage set (frilly curtains and disco lighting) and languid lounge music brought a sense of authentic kitsch to the proceedings and the audience, young and old clearly enjoyed every minute.

For what it’s worth, I felt that the show was a tad overlong and was hampered by a rather lumpen script. There was no question that the performers gave it all they had and there were many funny moments (and some genuinely jaw dropping magic). Though it had the feel of a show that had been rather quickly thrown together but was very welcome for its joie de vivre. As the audience cheered the return of live theatre, it was clear that here was some real magic-  that has gone right.

Tuesday 10 – Saturday 21 August, 7.30pm

and Wednesday 11, Thursday 12, Saturday 14 , Thursday 19 & Saturday 21 August, 2.30pm:

£25/£35/£40/£45

Sunday 15 August: No performances