Four stars – ‘A Triumph of Theatre Magic’ ‘Unlike any musical I have seen before – captivating’ ‘A salty melange of New Orleans’: that is what persons are saying about Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle. Oh wait! That’s the present subsequent door… Nevertheless, what’s a slight slip-up between mates? Let’s hold that 4 star ranking anyway, as a result of that is a completely prime present that may undoubtedly be wowing the West End for a while to return; completely ridiculous, but intelligent, participating and far, way more than first seems. Our host this night is the Mind Mangler himself…
Rating
Excellent
Take your Pampers mats alongside for a face-achingly humorous, cleverly comedic psychic present that’s certain to wow the West End.
Four stars – ‘A Triumph of Theatre Magic’ ‘Unlike any musical I have seen before – captivating’ ‘A salty melange of New Orleans’: that is what persons are saying about Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle. Oh wait! That’s the present subsequent door… Nevertheless, what’s a slight slip-up between mates? Let’s hold that 4 star ranking anyway, as a result of that is a completely prime present that may undoubtedly be wowing the West End for a while to return; completely ridiculous, but intelligent, participating and far, way more than first seems.
Our host this night is the Mind Mangler himself (also referred to as Keith). He is performed by the unimaginable Henry Lewis, who you could know from Magic Goes Wrong, one other fabulous Mischief Theatre manufacturing. A self-aggrandising, relatively crap magician and psychic, he invitations us to relish in his magical magnificence, however his efficiency leads to a pathetic pastiche of each dodgy magic present you’ve got ever seen.
Keith is a hilarious character: a magician with no charisma, continually battling with the viewers, who he actually must have on his facet. His viewers member participant (performed by the superb Jonathan Sayer) is clearly a plant and offers the sport away at each flip. A sequence of transparently garbage tips ensue, bringing howls of laughter, however sometimes there’s a genuinely good one which slips in and out of the blue you’re stunned, rethinking what you’re seeing. The programme reveals that Penn & Teller have been integral to creating Magic Goes Wrong, and now it’s all not fairly as duff as you might need initially thought. The complete factor is completely hilarious, leaving the viewers choking with laughter and disbelief because the conditions change into increasingly ludicrous.
But that’s not his solely talent! The viewers is vital to this present, and the interplay with them is good and skilfully executed, concurrently livestreamed onto the stage so we will see ourselves as a part of the insanity. There’s a tingling pressure as Keith picks folks to return on stage, or predicts our secrets and techniques in a mindreading part that might put Psychic Sally to disgrace. On the evening, this was maybe slightly extended because the psychic connection took a short time to make its approach by – the one a part of the night the place there was a slight dip in power. But the final word payoff in hilarity was fully definitely worth the wait.
Sayer is impressively foolish and speedy, enjoying a number of daft roles and popping up in several costumes across the auditorium. The relationship between him and Lewis is magic itself, as they navigate the precipices of corpsing, or collectively reveal Keith’s pathetic background story. The characters’ sadly dysfunctional friendship unexpectedly provides an incisive, heat and superbly human component to the in any other case laughable narrative. They do say there’s no comedy with out tragedy, proper?
There are so many highlights to this present, together with the whacky and considerably inexplicable ‘Quick Fire Jesus’ sketches set towards some genuinely baffling magical achievements. The considerate element is massively spectacular, and completely every little thing ties collectively actually neatly, with recurring themes threading intricately by the night– even spontaneously intertwining with ad-libbed content material contributed by the viewers: I imply, who has even heard of a shovelnose guitarfish, not to mention having the ability to impersonate one? Job nicely completed there. Layer upon layer of giggle out loud comedy and cleverness makes this present a massively humorous hit!
I left the theatre with my complete face aching from laughing, and I totally count on subsequent time I see this present because it wows the West End they are going to be placing Pampers mats on all of the seats simply in case…
Written by: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields
Directed by: Hannah Sharkey
Magic Consultant: Ben Hart
Video Design by: Gillian Tan
Lighting Design by: David Howe
Sound Design by: Helen Skiera
Set Design by: Sara Perks
Costume Design by: Roberto Surace
Composed by: Steve Brown
Produced by: Mischief Theatre, Kenny Wax, Stage Presence & Kevin McCollum
Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle runs on the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue till Sunday 28 April. Find out extra and ebook tickets right here.