Robert Tanitch reviews Impossible at Noel Coward Theatre, London WC2
The audience is strongly advised not to try anything they see on stage at home, which is a pity because there will be many people who cannot wait to get home and saw their partner in half, lock them up in a water tank or indeed shoot at them with a crossbow whilst wearing a blindfold.
But, unfortunately, we are all living in an age of health and safety and such simple pleasures are denied us.
Ali Cook performs Houdini’s Water Tank Escape
Magicians as entertainers were a common sight in the streets and fairgrounds of medieval Europe.
They moved into theatres in a big way in the 19th century. Today, the most likely place to find a magician would be on television, in cabarets and casinos.
The three full-length magic shows on stage I remember most are: Siegfried and Roy in Las Vegas, David Copperfield in San Francisco and Derren Brown in London. David Copperfield and David Blaine is the Harry Houdini of our age.
Impossible invites us to witness the eight principles of magic: escape, transportation, penetration, prediction, levitation, transformation, vanish and production. The acts are also filmed and projected on big screens, especially useful with cards and coins, if you are not sitting near the stage.
The tricks and stunts are performed by escapologists, illusionists, mind-readers, conjurors and sleight of hand masters, all males. A sorceress is billed in the programme but she did not appear.
Jamie Allan and Josephine Wormall in Impossible
The tricks and stunts are very familiar, but it is always nice to see death-defying acts, card and coin manipulations, the rejoining of a constantly cut rope, sawing a woman in half, lying on a bed of nails, transporting a woman in one box to another box invisibly, etc, etc.
Jonathan Goodwin is put in a straight jacket, strung up upside down and his trousers set on fire. Jamie Allan makes a Mercedes disappear and a helicopter appear.
Ben Hart plays with his balls between his fingers and Luis de Matos with great charm persuades the audience to tear up cards and throw them in the air, a delightful hoax.
Chris Cox, a gangling geeky youth, can read people’s minds; actually he can’t read people’s minds, and that’s the clever thing about his act.
The high spot is undoubtedly Ali Cook’s spectacular Houdini water tank escape which is accomplished at an amazing speed.
If you enjoy magic, then Impossible is for you. The London runs finishes on August 29.
To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website
Images by Helen Maybanks
