‘A Touch of Magic’ is essentially a new take on a tried and tested premise; what if a seemingly happy couple, typically away on holiday together, have a third person worm his way into their cosy set-up and progressively become a source of tension and discord, whilst seemingly befriending either or both them? Think of Terry Scott with Betty Marsden enjoying an outdoor vacation in ‘Carry On Camping’ when they encounter a distressed (and very camp) Charles Hawtrey, who ends up sharing their food and eventually their tent. A variation occurs in Hancock’s Half Hour when the irritating neighbour from across the road, played by Kenneth Williams, arrives and just won’t leave, however strong the hints he’s not welcome. In a darker vein, Joe Orton’s ‘Entertaining Mr Sloane’ has a similar premise.
The setting for ‘A Touch of Magic’ is a Spanish holiday resort and (as appears to be the usual case) an oddball who is also very camp appears on the scene, inviting himself in this case to a romantic wedding anniversary dinner of a long-married couple. Just why in all of these cases, no is ever able to say ‘it’s time for you to go’ in a way that the irritant believes or why the couple somehow allow him to entwine himself ever more closely into their lives is hard to fathom but the answer probably lies in the fact that so many of us sometime feel more at ease telling intimate things to a perfect stranger which we would find hard to discuss with a relative or friend we’ve known for years. Somehow the intruder gives a kind of respite or innocent relief to one or possibly both members of the couple and it’s no co-incidence that ‘the couple’ are usually straight and the ‘irritant’ usually very camp because if he was perceived as a sexual predator, the dynamic simply would not work.
‘A Touch of Magic’ carefully unpacks the long-standing stresses and strains in a couple’s relationship, including tension with their only child, whom we can see only in a framed photo given a place at the dinner table. Kiki Kendrick as Carol sensitively brings over the wife who is frustrated with long standing faults of her husband, starting with his buying lots of alcohol for the meal when he should have remembered his wife cannot drink without wanting nicotine, which he has insisted she gives up. On the other hand, the husband Ron, played with gutsy realism by Guy Hepworth, is frustrated with his wife’s seeming lack of a sense of fun. The couple come over as very real in contrast to their ‘guest’ Owen, superbly played by Kivan Dene (every bit as camp as Kenneth Williams or Charles Hawtrey!). Owen, so it seems, is an asexual children’s entertainer living with a drag queen, who talks to bottles of wine as if they are real people and delights in childish pursuits. He’s also stereotypically Welsh and the increasing absurdity of his character nicely contrasts with the unravelling tensions of the couple!
Leni Murphy has done a very good job directing a play which deals with realistic marital tensions in a sensitive way whilst interspersing scenes with comic links from a waiter and waitress, even to the point of getting a member of the audience to help them move furniture. This is only Anne Wynne’s second play and displays very creditable writing, maintaining constant pace and a good and ever-changing balance between drama and comedy. A Touch of Magic’ is an enjoyable night out with a satisfying ending.
Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 11/7/19
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