11 – 16 June
I’m all for getting bums on seats in theatre, it’s the sine qua non of sustainability. Mischief Theatre, who are behind the ‘…That Goes Wrong’ series, are on a roll that does just that. I’d put money on the likelihood that the majority of last night’s audience were not regular theatergoers. So hats off to them. They’ve hit on a rich vein of comedy that has struck a chord with the British public who are prepared to part with some of their hard earned for a little dose of what they have to offer. There’s probably a PhD in researching why it is that a public who would be unlikely to see, Waiting for Godot, would flock to see, The Arty Farty Play That Goes Wrong, or A Comedy of Errors Gets Sorted. The Society of West End Producers might want to fund the research.
The show on offer had its beginnings a couple of years ago in a collaboration with Penn & Teller, the masters of comedy magic with stage illusion and brings together the two styles of entertainment each have perfected. The result might have been titled Derren Brown Goes Wrong and plays on the kind of audience participation and manipulation Mr Brown and others have used in their stage and television acts. In truth it’s a kind of standup act, a double act at that, with some of the funniest moments being in the exchanges between the Mind Mangler (Henry Lewis) and his onstage partner or Stooge (Jonathan Sayer). The Mangler is a something portentous creation, designed to fail, but not failing by virtue of undercutting his own tricks and stratagems with an ironic cheat, breezily passed off as a little triumph. It’s a kind of double-bluff with the audience; the thing that was supposed to go right goes wrong, but was never meant to go right in the first place. We laugh precisely because we know we haven’t been ‘manipulated’. The Stooge, a wiry little Scouser, is not the butt of any jokes, but an irritant with a certain too-readiness to puncture the illusion and the inflated ego of the Mangler with a sharp jab of innocent reality.
However the show’s roots are given due recognition in the slow-burn tricks that do leave the audience shaking their heads in puzzlement, such as the sealed box which is purported to have predictions about the show’s events. The whole thing is wrapped up in a genial, irritable and long suffering personality. At one point the Mangler boasts ominously that he has the audience in his hand. He jokes of course, but the reality is that he actually does.
This is entertainment of the old school purveyed by a couple of modern masters.
★★★★☆ Graham Wyles 13 June 2024
Photographers credit @ Pamela Raith Photography
