Described as a “39 Steps-esque thriller…this show will have you laughing and gasping throughout at the magic of theatre and the ‘real’ magic of illusions designed by TV’s Pete Firman”, I had high expectations for ‘Houdini’s Greatest Escape’ at the Dukes Theatre, Lancaster. The cast of four worked hard, but opportunities for side-splitting laughter and audience engagement were missed.
The idea for the story is a clever one - Harry Houdini (played by Ben Higgins) and his wife, Bess (Lydia Piechowiak), are on the cusp of a career-defining performance for King Edward when Harry finds himself framed for murder by a gang of criminals in cahoots with the Chief of Police. Can Harry and Bess escape from this predicament by using their well-honed expertise? The play follows their journey and their encounters with a multitude of characters including a clown with (bizarrely) an elephant’s trunk for an arm! There is much comic multi-playing from Kirsty Cox and Adam Elliott (Elliot plays 11 parts) with physical humour from Elliott, in particular. Higgins and Piechowiak make a solid team as Harry and Bess.
Missed opportunities include a scene in the first act when Harry, Bess and Nelly struggle on the roof of a train and the actors operate humanettes with their heads appearing as those of the puppets. This could have been hysterically funny but lost its impact as the puppeteers’ bodies were not blacked out.
In another scene Elliott switches expertly between 4 characters at a newspaper stand, the joke, however, wears a little thin as the scene lasts too long.
The audience did not seem to be completely on-side during the performance I saw – attempts to engage us using prompt cards (‘Applaud’, ‘Boo!’) during Agatha the Spiritualist’s show (within a show) fell flat. Perhaps some audience participation earlier in the evening might have helped with this?
The second act felt much stronger than the first, starting with Elliott’s skilfully performed card trick to recap on the story so far using 2 cards representing Harry and Bess, along with a slow-motion re-enactment of how the astute Bess helps Harry to save himself from being killed. Other highlights include: clever use of a newspaper to ‘frame’ Harry’s ‘wanted’ image; quality physical theatre from Elliott when he rides a motor bike, then pedal bike, then horse; an underwater scene when Bess manages to escape from a police car – again in slow-motion, and a tightly choreographed ensemble scene featuring 4 characters in a bar.
As the story builds up to Harry’s performance for King Edward, I expected that performance to be the high point of the evening and felt thwarted that this wasn’t the case, however the show does end with a cleverly engineered illusion (could an audience member be asked to check the padlocks?).
I had hoped to laugh out loud and be intrigued by illusions throughout the show so was disappointed. A more liberal sprinkling of magic would have been welcome!
‘Houdini’s Greatest Escape’ was written and directed by New Old Friend’s founder, Feargus Woods Dunlop, and is showing at various venues across the UK until 30 June.
Reviewer – Sue Hayward
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