IMPOSSIBLE - THEATRE REVIEW (West End)

amusings
Jul 31, 2015
5 min read

I M P O S S I B L E

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Noël Coward Theatre, London

★★★

THEATRE | Kyle Pedley

IS THE WEST END'S NEW TRICK A TREAT?

Swooping into the West End with exactly the kind of Vegas-worthy bravura and machismo that it’s name implies, Impossible sets out its stall - and expectations - high from the offset. Dubbed ‘London’s Most Dangerous Show’ and coming off of the back of creative director Anthony Owen’s equally egregious Derren Brown TV specials, one can almost feel the hype machine ushering you to your seats as you enter, daring you not to be amazed and practically demanding the Vegas parallels. The production values are suitably stratospheric, Andrew D Edwards’ kaleidoscopic stage and Tim Lutkin’s hyperactive lighting appropriately flashy and gaudy, and the whole thing is bathed in the near-deafening ebbs of Michael Bradley’s music, which most notably recalls the melodic pounding of a Hans Zimmer a la Pirates of the Caribbean. Were it not yet clear - Impossible is as far from subtle as magic, and practically the West End as a whole, can get.

And yet, whilst at surface value you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve spent the evening somehow transported to ‘The Strip’, and there’s certainly an impressive sense of showmanship surrounding much of what Impossible offers, it is also a strangely old-fashioned experience. Not literally in it’s recollection of the Houdini’s and Alexander’s of yesteryear, but in the general familiarity of so much of the trickery and routines performed on-stage. From those old rope tricks of disappearing knots and magic loops through to a underwater straight jacket escape, boxed ‘dissections’ and more card tricks than you can wave your wand at (leave your innuendo’s at home, kindly), even a relative novice to the world of magic and illusions will likely already have seen some ilk of a lot of what Impossible offers. And whilst the diversity of performers and personalities keeps the show fresh throughout, in truth there is a somewhat disappointing lack of original content and material here considering the lofty claims and identity the show has forged for itself.

"Whilst there's certainly and impressive sense

of showmanship surrounding much of what

Impossible offers, it is also a strangely

old-fashioned experience."

Despite this, there is plenty to recommend and enjoy in Impossible, and even at base value there’s an irrepressible, regressive joy in getting the chance to experience an evening of live magic. Few will be able to deny the steely tension as Jonathan Goodwin prepares to fire a crossbow through a lightbulb his wife is holding in her mouth or catches ablaze whilst attempting to free himself whilst hanging upside down. Luis De Matos’ offers an extended spot of audience participation in the second Act with a trick that shan’t be spoilt but needless to say was a firm crowd-pleaser, and Chris Cox, the ‘mind reader who can’t read minds’ brings his comedy-circuit charm and pep to a Derren Brown-lite segment of mind reading and pre-emption. And indeed, littered throughout are plenty of ‘how did they do that moments’, mostly courtesy of disappearing cars and switcheroos that are so fast and fluid that there’ll be plenty of the obligatory theorising and discussions on the journey home trying to deduce or second guess the trickery on-stage.

It makes Impossible a curious, intriguing yet unexpectedly comfortable bricolage of ideas and approaches. It is the show’s more overt peacocking that seems the most redundant and unnecessary - the production almost needs to embrace it’s old-fashioned nature to more accurately represent what it offers to an audience. For what it does offer is not bad by any means - in fact some of the more focused, simplistic moments of Impossible are by some measure it’s most compelling; see the charming Ben Hart in a beautifully stylised silent movie sequence in Act II channelling his inner Chaplin, or De Matos’ charismatic yet understated back-and-forth with the young ‘narrator’ of the show, showing off some truly impressive slight of hand-kerchiefing. Audience expectations of the ADHD/X Factor/Youtube generation may have demanded the kind of no-holds-barred, high-concept approach taken in marketing and designing Impossible, but it’s a shame some of the more delicate touches and artistic moments aren’t given more stage time to flourish.

"The more focused, simplistic moments of Impossible

are by some measure it's most compelling; see the charming

Ben Hart in a beautifully stylised silent movie sequence

in Act II channelling his inner Chaplin, or De Matos'

charimsatic yet understated slight of hand-kerchiefing."

In all, Impossible doesn’t quite step out from the shadow of its forebears, including Anthony Owen’s own recent work with the aforementioned Derren Brown specials. It is not quite the death-defying, awe-inspiring spectacular some may hope for nor professes to be - but rather an evening of very satisfying, very well performed magic. Model-worthy young women nimbly strutting about on stage in traditional ‘glamorous assistant’ roles and dextrously contorting themselves into boxes may give a few staunch feminists spells of horror, but in truth it is just another welcome embracing of convention. It is also worth pointing out that the line-up of the show originally had included ‘Sorceress’ Katherine Mills, who unfortunately had to pull out of the show at the last minute for personal reasons.

If one can taper ones expectations then Impossible boasts a troupe of talented, very capable performers pulling off (mostly) familiar tricks very, very well indeed. There are glimmers of promise and plenty of personality to carry the whole evening through, and younger audiences in particular will likely come away delighted and amazed; the show is decidedly family-friendly, which is no doubt a welcome plus for many. If magic is all smokes and mirrors, though (as Impossible re-iterates numerous times throughout - it's not real!) then by the time the fleeting curtain call finale arrives, it’s difficult to shake the sneaking suspicion that perhaps the biggest trick pulled has been on the audience themselves, and for all of Impossible’s enjoyment and charm, ‘Improbable’ may have been a more suitably diluted title after all.