Writer: Liam Wilson Smyth
Director: Paul Meade.
Alistair Caspar (the magician) invites the audience to enter the secret world of the magician’s tricks. Outside the theatre space he has plotted a web in Dublin city, assisted by friends to help him woo his lost love Claire and guide her back to Bewley’s café, to be there for his last performance. The play reminds me of Cyrano de Bergerac, who loves at a distance and who employs a variety of ruses to capture the object of his affection, Roxanne.
As playwright and actor Liam Wilson Smyth treats the audience to verbal acrobatics in skilful comic dialogue which accompanies the magic and its tricks. Empathy on the part of the audience is essential for this character to achieve his goal and win back his lost love Claire. Liam Wilson Smyth breaks ‘the fourth wall’( the invisible space between audience and actor); his performance achieves this through skilfully guiding the audience who respond positively with fascination and curiosity to the magical elements introduced by the character.
However fragmentation happens within the framework of the play when the actor divides into a stand- up comedian, and a psychic. These characters are well formed and entertaining in themselves – but I feel that perhaps the character of Alistair Caspar is so well rounded that he alone is sufficient to keep us entertained, without the presence of the other characters who appear briefly in the piece.
The play might benefit from editing. Sometimes the outside characters or ‘voice- overs’, who are employed to follow Claire’s movements and direct her to Bewley’s, are too intrusive, repetitive and impede the action. Although innovative and comic, a device when introduced in a play, should assist the action to move forward rather than detract, as it does slightly in this case.
The denouement of the play is indeed magical, pleasantly surprising, moving and well-conceived.
Runs Until 9th September 2023.
The Review's Hub Score
Innovative
