MAGIC GOES WRONG

Blame the fish tank. When I caught up with ‘The Blade’ he was sitting in A&E. No, not some ghastly mishap with his knife-throwing act but a bit of bother with a blocked ear. Kiefer Moriarty who plays one of the accident-prone magicians in the latest ‘Goes Wrong’ caper had just had his head stuck in a tank of water. The ear thing was nothing serious and he is on track to join the company for the first night at the Arts Theatre of Mischief’s latest mirthful mayhem. It’s the first big part for this young Irish actor but in his own words ‘this is the most physical thing I’ve ever done in my life’.

The franchise, for those who don’t know, follows the familiar pattern: a luckless company of actors try to carry on as gremlin and disaster puncture their attempts to perform their piece. In this case it is, you will not be surprised, a magic show goes terribly wrong. “It is all quite insane but the audiences have been loving it,’ muses the temporarily deaf Blade. It is going to be Tommy Cooper on jet skis with magic trickery designed and supported by the US greats Penn and Teller with the help of the British ‘new’ talent in abracadabra world, Ben Hart.

Moriarty has had like the rest of the cast to learn proper magical tricks but he is of course bound by the Magic Circle to secrecy. More than his life’s worth he says but probably doesn’t mean that. Or does he? The show promises to pile on the laughter with a torrent of visual gags and acrobatic daredevilry. It will no doubt be a wonderful antIdote to the current malaise and as Kiefer told me, ‘Audiences are so emotionally engaged to see live theatre back’. And you don’t get more live than this (unless something goes wrong with the fish tank).

Cambridge Arts Theatre, 6 St Edward’s Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PJ

Dates: Tuesday 10 – Saturday 21 August Times and prices: Tuesday 10 – Saturday 21 August, 7.30pm and Wednesday 11, Thursday 12, Saturday 14 , Thursday 19 & Saturday 21 August, 2.30pm

Box Office: 01223 503333 / www.cambridgeartstheatre.com