Houdini’s Greatest Escape, UK Tour Review

Reviews

26 Apr

Written by Sam for Theatre & Tonic

Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.

Harry Houdini is a well-known escape artist and arguably the most famous entertainer of his time. He is married to Bess Houdini, and they travel to England from America to try and perform for King Edward, however, their trip quickly turns sour when Harry finds himself framed for robbery and murder by a gang of criminals aka The Barkers. Who is behind this heinous crime I wonder, could it be Houdini’s rival, Mystic Agatha?

The cast is made up of four individuals, Ben Higgins as Harry Houdini, Lydia Piechowiak as Bess Houdini, Kirsty Cox as Agatha, Ma Barker, Jules, Nelly, Barbara, PC Dibble and PC Cuthbert and Adam Elliott as Hardeen, Chief Doyle, Fred Barker, Lloyd Barker, Ronnie Barker, Ken Hawker, Shirley, Pennybags, Hunter and Jerome. As you can see, there are a lot of characters in this show but each one of them bring the right amount of chaos and fun to the stage. No character is the same and I think that’s why New Old Friends make this work so well. Their accents are all different and they’re brilliant at keeping them up, their costumes/hair go from one extreme to the other in such a short space of time and I love how the script calls out the fact there are multiple characters played by one person.

This is the second time I have seen Old New Friends performing as a four and once again, I was blown away. Everything about what they do fascinates me and makes the show extremely entertaining – you never know what you’re going to experience, and I think this makes the night even more intriguing. A fantastic example of this is when Elliott had to play four characters whilst performing solo on stage. I won’t spoil it for the readers, but he filled the stage with his energy, absolutely nailed the portrayal of each character and the way the costumes (designed by Connie Watson) had the capability to adapt to each character with minimal effort was genius.

I feel like I could type hundreds of words about how wonderful this show is. I take my hat off not only to the cast but also Feargus Woods Dunlop, writer and director and Caitlin Abbott, set designer. The writing is extremely clever and each line flows so eloquently into the next and the set reflects the creativity and expertise Abbott brings to the industry. I have always been a fan of the cast being involved in set/scenery changes because they make it part of their part rather than volunteers coming onto the stage in darkness. When Bess fell into the lake, I loved how the cast used a blue sheet to portray the waves. Not only was it really funny but the cast acknowledged that they were holding the sheet to make light of it, and we all laughed with them!

Throughout the entire show, the audience is engaged with the cast, whether that’s through laughing, heckling or being directed by cue cards. There were some spontaneous moments where the cast was heckled or surprised by members of the audience (not in a negative way) and not once did they break character, they joined in and instantly switched back to delivering their lines. This is an impressive skill set because it can be quite difficult to remember where you are if you have been distracted momentarily.

I would encourage you to support this show and see it before it closes. You will leave with your face hurting from smiling and laughing so much. It’s definitely one of my favourites so far this year.

Tickets for the performance in Lichfield are on sale until Saturday 27 April and can be purchased here. New Old Friends will be continuing their tour for another month if you miss them in Lichfield!