Theatre
A Disappearing Act
Platform, The Bridge, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
two stars
Philip Winterbottom has disappeared. For ever. The magician who mostly plied his trade on cruise ships has died and now we – an audience who never knew him – have become impromptu mourners at a kind of post-funeral wake. Nicola (Filipa Tomas) had been the magician’s glamorous assistant – she’s wearing a shimmering little cocktail number in memory of that partnership.
Brandon (Bradley Wayne Smith) is the son who was never the main magic in his late father’s life – even so, he’s sporting a glitzy-sheeny three-piece suit that hankers for some limelight. The show itself, unfortunately, doesn’t dazzle as much as the costumes in this Single Shoe production.
There’s a lengthy pre-amble that sees Nicola and Brandon assiduously working the audience: pressing paper tissues on us, getting us to boo-hoo or laugh loudly as they remind us of memories we don’t have.
It’s only after they’ve marshalled us on-stage – and into two facing rows of seats – that the tribute to Philip begins, and a reason for the protracted warm-up dawns. Nicola and Brandon have probably been ‘auditioning’ the volunteers who will form an essential part of proceedings, by reading out heart-felt eulogies or voicing reflections on mortality.
Inbetween, there are magic tricks. Just like Philip, objects will disappear – unlike Philip, other objects will appear, as if hinting that death does not mean that the effect loved ones have on us vanishes completely. It doesn’t work particularly well on any level. Watching volunteers being put on the spot invites laughter, but not necessarily listening, even when the individuals are doing their serious best.
The magic is frankly rudimentary, and lacks a bamboozling lightness of touch. Moreover Tomas and Smith are intent on making us complicit in a format that is caught between two opposites – being entertaining, and encouraging thoughts on bereavement and grief. Their efforts feel overly hard-pressed. They fragment and disappear in the process…
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