Review: Edward II (National Theatre)

‘I don’t care much for the set, looks like its not finished. Well I suppose it is a preview’ – A gentleman entering the Olivier, as a woman began to hoover the stage.

Edward II tells the story of a homosexual king, struggling to keep his lover in his newly appointed kingdom, to put it simply.
Joe Hill Gibbins directs Marlow’s play, with his trademark mash of styles, eras, and for this show technology… less trifle this time. (See The Changelling – Young Vic)

We walk into the Olivier, to a jumbled set, covered in sheets of wood, lighting bars, rails of clothes… and Nick Hytners ‘Othello’ set tucked away in the back. There is no effort to hide anything… this is made brilliantly clear as a woman hoovers the stage…

Joe Hill Gibbins direction feels sexy, and slick, as the piece starts with Edwards coronation, the Olivier stage comes to life, sliding golden curtains appear, and the back wall of the Olivier descends to hide Othello’s toilet set…
Gibbin’s sexy direction does not end there, Edward and his lover Gaviscon have such incredible heat between the two of them, you almost feel you should look away, the two of them frolic on the stage, in period crossing clothing… it edges towards over labored social statement by showing a man in period costume kissing a man in modern day costume, but, manages to hold its ground, but not dwelling on the ‘gay’ issue.
Although for me, what is particularly lovely about the piece, is that the characters do no refer to Edward as ‘gay’, its just simply how he is… his subjects are not happy about it… but Edward II does not feel like a ‘gay play’…

The cast are all very attractive. A little bit indie, and a little kooky… but in a strange sort of miss matched way, they seem to fit.

There are moments of brilliance, where the story hits home, for example, Edwards fate at the end, heightened by an inspired choice to multi role… I’ll say no more.

But there are moments where sadly we loose clarity, for example the extended moments of live video footage in areas of the stage we cannot see… and when three of four different things are happening at once… It becomes chaotic, and not in a stylized way, which is a shame, because whats happening is brilliant… but there are moments that feel like the stage is a food processor on full blast.

I am a huge Joe Hill Gibbins fan, his work is s brilliantly unique… but this for me fell a tiny bit with its precision, which The Changelling at the Young Vic seemed full of… I will admit though, that I saw a preview, and have every faith that it will continue to refine, and improve.

I hope to return.

Review: Strange Interlude. (National Theatre)

Right, first of all, lets get the major negative out of the way…

I’m not sure what was happening back stage, building a set? Nick Hytner having a fit of rage? I don’t know, but for the first forty five minuets, someone seemed to be hammering incredibly loudly, and very close to the stage… and due to the stage being so quiet, and dialogue heavy, it was excruciating to watch/listen, dreading each bang… but my main issue is, how, why!? Surely people back stage would have been aware a show was going on?! Unless it was Mr Hytner having a fit of rage… maybe throwing the National Theatre Tortoise against a wall?

https://twitter.com/NT_Tortoise

 

Anyway…

Strange Interlude, by Eugiene O’Neil tells the story, of Nina, a woman well aware of her emerging rights as a woman, to claim her life, and her body… Nina? Nora? Do I smell Ibsen?!

Simon Godwin directs, and does a wonderful job, creating a atmosphere of sickly, love soaked, full of good intention oppression, as Nina weaves her away around the men in her life… in a lovely rotating set, showing multiple, film like slithers of rooms… Carrie Cracknell? Ibsen? What?

Anne Marie Duff takes on the role of Nina, to great, inspired success as the childlike woman, who we watch become a woman, who knows what, and who she wants…

O’Neils play is written so the characters talk to each other, but have the opportunity to leave the scene, and speak to the audience, telling secrets, and their true feelings on situations… apparently this play inspired television shows such as Peep Show… which I see… but question why? It teeters on drama school acting techniques, and feels a little amateurish… even though Godwins direction is slick and skilled… there is no way to make the ‘out of body’ monologues seem ‘normal’… for example, characters mid way through sentence start talking the audience, leaving the scene, which makes me wonder, what do the other characters do? Freeze? Twilight zone?

All in all, the piece is good, its design is nice, goes somewhere a little strange towards the end, and feels a little unpolished, but that’s mainly the texts fault… and I couldn’t help but feel a few copy-write infringements were broken…?

 

Review: A Season In The Congo (Young Vic)

Upon entering the main space at the young vic for a performance of ‘A Season In The Congo’ directed by Joe Wright, and staring Chiwetel Ejiofor, you cant help but feel the urge to dance… The music pumped into the space, as characters from the play inhabit the space is so infectious, and such a brilliant set up for whats to come… even the most quiet and un-enthusiastic audiences have an incredible buzz about them… you almost feel as though you are at a secret gathering, the atmosphere is exciting, and thick with tension… which continues to build, and build throughout…

Lizzie Clachans stunning, towering design, comprised of her trademark distressed urban jumble is breathtaking, and used to its full potential. Characters, puppets, lights, sounds and a multitude of other things pour from every entrance and exit.

Joe Wrights skilled direction is both simple in its devices, and yet incredibly complex, as the actor never seem to stop moving… and sweating madly.

Chiwetel gives an incredible performance as doomed leader of the national Congo movement, Patrice LaMumba.
His appearance is uncannily like the man himself, and Chiwetels stage presence evokes everything you want from a man, rousing up the people to fight against oppression.

He storms around the stage, with a voice that booms up to the rafters, with an intensity that at points can be terrifying, and frightening, due to the scope of his ambition, and the challenge he faces… yet you cant help but root for him… which brings home the devastating final moments, as Patrice is passed along a banqueting table, as the Congolese people toss him aside.

There were moments where I found myself shutting down a little, due to the heavily layering of facts, and dates, and details, which at times felt a little heavy, especially the large amounts of political speak… but that is probably just me… and its only because I am  being picky. In all honesty its difficult to find a flaw in the production… Lighting design was incredible, sound design constant and ingenious, and an ensemble that oozed energy off the stage, and sent everyone home dancing.

A brilliant evening at the theatre, and true testament to the wonderful, inspiring work the young vic produce.

 

Review: Punchdrunk – The Drowned Man. (Temple Studios)

I find shows like this quite difficult to write about, and the premise of Punchdrunk’s work, is that everyone gets a different experience, if your willing to go with it.

The Drowned Man, marks my first Punchdrunk trip, so arriving at Temple Studios in paddington, surrounded by Punchdrunk addicts, I’ll admit I felt a little out of my depth.
I had literally no Idea what to expect, I knew a few things, but generally the plot of the show is kept quiet, although we are told that the piece is based around Woyzeck.

So after surrendering everything but my clothing, and queuing for a while, I am taken into a long dark corridor, and eventually into a lift, where I am given a mask, and told to not speak. Then after a brief introduction, I am let loose.

Literally. Let loose.

No where in the building is off limits. So I made full use of this, crawling through sand dunes, scrambling around caravans, digging around in shops, rummaging through paper work, whilst being offered glimmers of story line to either follow, or observe.
I chose not to follow the conventional characters, and instead to follow the more minor story lines, this seemed to serve me well (I think…), as I experienced three of punchdrunk’s famous ‘One on One Sessions’, where I found myself taken from the main building, and dragged into a smaller room, to be told a story, or dressed up, or even kissed… Yes. I was kissed… by a character, on my own.

The scale of the piece is truly breathtaking, the design seems to never stop, and is ALMOST flawless in its detail… I say almost because I found a very modern pen left in a caravan, and allot of wires and plugs left lying around… which was a shame, and were unfortunate reminders that what was happening, was not real, an illusion that the company had done SO well in many places to maintain.

As I wander through the building, I find myself in fights, scenes of sex, of violence, and sadness, film sets, and dressing rooms, and a few places I felt I shouldn’t have been… Yet my mask granted me access.
One particular moment stands out for me, the haunting image of a woman sobbing in a car, desperately trying to find her keys in handbag… Haunting, and heartbreaking to watch.

‘Watch’ being the key word here. We are voyeurs. Our purpose in the space is to watch and respond with what we do next.
Do I follow the character I have just been watching?
Or explore the surroundings?
Do I walk in the direction they have just gone?
Or the opposite?
The freedom was wonderful, and I took full advantage, wandering from room to room, watching, hiding behind my mask.

Despite the moments of glittering brilliance, there were some downsides.

I often found myself repeating (un-necessarily) rooms I did not want, or need to see again, such as a large caravan park, I found myself annoyed at being back there, at least nine times.
Also, I found myself un-necessarily left alone at times.
There were moments where being alone was truly breathtaking, and moments where I was clearly alone, because I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

For example, I stumbled across a medical lab, buried in a sand dune… No one was there, so its impact was lost. Of course I wandered around and had a look… also a bath scene, that I had clearly missed.
This,  for me, felt like the productions flaw. Of course not everyone will see everything, and I don’t expect too, but I found myself wandering for about 45 minuets, in rooms I kept repeating, and NOTHING was happening.

The content of the piece at times felt a little unclear, and felt very similar to that of which I have seen in production images from past Punchdrunk shows… Its setting is still a little unclear to me, whilst beautiful, seemed a little abstract at times.

I would have liked there to have been a deeper exploration of the story-line, things felt a little shallow at points. There seemed to be a ‘cant quite work out what to do here, so we’ll do some interpretative dance’ sort of mentality, which at times worked well… others not so much.

Maybe my issues are addressed, and I missed them. It wouldn’t surprise me.

The performers were incredible. Working in the at times crippling heat, they remained brilliant. Electrifying to watch, and so skilled in the way they move. Due to the sound-scapes being quite loud at points, body language felt incredibly important, and not one performer let it down.

The finale was quite the spectacle, and true testament to the productions crowd moving skills, as everyone seemed to appear in one room, at the same time to watch the ending. We are then presented with an enormous (and slightly out of place dance number, that mimicked that of a big Broadway musical). The final image though was quite beautiful.

I left feeling a little disorientated, and gutted that I wasn’t allowed to keep my now incredibly sweaty mask (take a face wipe).

The piece was beautiful, incredibly detailed and I truly felt immersed into a different world… I just would have liked alot more ‘content’, and a little less dance.

Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)

I managed to stumble across tickets for this. After the preview prices fizzed away, and the box office told me that they ‘don’t do day tickets, at least not at the moment’ I, much like Charlue Bucket, gave up hope of seeing show, at least for a while.
THEN, I managed to win tickets from SeatPlan, by entering over 80 seat reviews… and managed to get two tickets for a hot summery, monday night. 

Thank god for air-con.

So, we enter the vast auditorium (which must fill every theatre maker with dread… with over 2,000 seats needing to be sold) and everything is as I expect it. Tons of excited children, and a fantastic proscenium  arch.
The stage is covered in darkness, apart from a small, museum like plaque, showing a diagram of a cacao bean.

The piece begins with a charming little video, bringing to life Quentin Blakes drawings to tell us how chocolate is made.
Its a tad long, and a little unnecessary, but charming non the less, and sets you up for a great evening.

The first act is where the heart of the story lies. Charlie Bucket and his family are introduced, poor and hungry, and desperate for some excitement, and shown the (at times sickly) sweetness of the youngest Bucket, who will do anything for his family, and they for him.
We are also given a glimpse into some of the technical brilliance act two has in store.

All the children are introduced by a huge television broadcast, featuring an MTV presenter, interviewing the lucky golden ticket finders, each with their own songs.

The children have received a much needed update, and stray far enough from Burton’s very iconic children, but not so far, that they are completely new.
Mike TV becomes a dub-step loving, video game manic forced to live his childhood inside with his frail, and terrified mother, who is possibly the most brilliantly conceived character, who’s story receives a slight twist when Mike reaches his fate, that had me in stitches.

Vercua Salt is the same, nasty little brat, but Mendez has juxtaposed this, by making her a ballerina.
Violet Beauregarde has been made into the ‘double bubble duchess’, the epitome of the MTV generation in her purple tracksuit, and fame pushing father.

Augustus and Charlie stay relatively the same.

Strangely enough, the children seem to take a back seat. Charlie has his time to shine in act one, but the children say very little its mainly down too the parents, which is quite strange, although, the parents are all brilliant.

Then we come onto Wonka, who appears at the gates to the factory, with a catchy crowd pleasing tune, and invites us to come inside, as act one ends.

Act two just dose not sit still.
We hurtle from room to room, with barely a moment to breath. Watching as the brilliant Douglas Hodge darts from place to place, with a strange, yet tired twinkle in his eye.
The design is everything you want it to be, spectacular, and well conveyed. In particular, the nut sorting room.

As the children drop like unwanted sweet wrappers, and we are left with Charlie and Wonka, the great glass elevator appears, and the catchy song ‘Pure Imagination’ from the Gene Wilder film is cranked out… which is lovely… but felt like a bit of a cop out… during a very sentimental moment, the emotion is created from an old song people have strong connections with… so really the actors on stage could stand and pick their noses whilst singing it, and people would have a reaction…

All in all, the piece is a technological magical feast, mainly for children. Its sickly sweetness at moments was a little too much for me, I found myself missing the darkness of Dahl’s humor, but the theatre sold out… and it deserves to, the show is great, and has some real magical moments, such as the genuine gasp from the audience, as Charlie finds a ticket… Wonderful to see that theatre still possesses a little magic, and not all of it is created by cogs and levers. 

 

Seen the show? Review your seat at : http://www.seatplan.co.uk/

 

 

Review – The Wonderful World Of Dissocia (The Red Hedgehog)

Antony Neilson billed Dissocia as his solution to the violence and sex free classic tale of Alice In Wonderland… and on quite a few levels it delivers that.

The Red Hedgehog in Highgate is for three weeks, home to Clatterhouse’s production of ‘The Wonderful World Of Dissocia’ and once you get past the quite appalling state of the venue itself (which in places, could quite easily pass as someones living room…) you find yourself presented with a bit of a gem, that admittedly, still needs a bit of work, and a little tidying up in places, and an injection of pace, but is full of laughs, witty dialogue, and great performances.

The piece about about a young girl, called Lisa, who is having a bit of a rough time in her life, only to be told, by a Swiss watch repair gentleman, who appears to have traveled ALL the way from Switzerland, that Lisa has in fact, due to some strange overlapping of time differences, lost an hour of her life.
It seems the only way Lisa (played with a sickly sweetness/innocence at times by Charlotte Reid) must descend to Dissocia to retrieve it… her flat becomes an elevator, and off we hurtle through a strange world, populated by Scapegoats, Insecurity Guards, singing polar bears, a government initiative designed to fight crime, and a lost property department giving out hot dogs… oh and some nudity among-st other things…
I don’t think I can recall a time when I have been quite so close to full on stage nudity… perhaps Trojan Women at the Gate.
So well done to George Fouracres, incredibly brave.

The piece moves on, till we find our-self in a hospital suit, where Lisa is being given drugs for an unknown illness, and slowly, but surely through a short selection of scenes, we become aware that Lisa is in a psychiatric ward, and the characters, and indeed the world of Dissocia is the place keeping her there. Its quite a sad realization, that appears to happen very quickly, in comparison to the first act.

For me, the issue with the piece is its timing, everything needs to be picked up a little bit, at the moment its really funny, but could be allot funnier if the characters bite at each others lines a little more, and are a little more extrovert in their portrayal, the piece almost calls for the actors to try and ‘out do’ each other every night, which could be quite exciting to watch.

Star moments would be from the brilliant Abi Tedder as a woman employed to be raped and beaten, Liane Grant’s Oath Taker character, and the two boys George Fouracres, and Ben Kavanagh as the Insecurity officers. Moments that ooze with Neilsons humour.

Its design consisted of a fully red room, with a few props, which served the playfulness of the piece well, almost setting up a childs play pen.

A continual soundscape (designed by Bruce Adams) for the first act, which is juxtaposed by startling silence at the end is subtle, and quite beautiful at points…

A lighting design (By Iyce Kariuki ) consisting of fairy lights surrounded by flowers, and pulsing lights (cleverly put together using only eight lanterns…) suggesting time, and place.

All in all, the venue leave allot to be desired, but the piece itself has heart and you can tell allot of work has been put into it, and I believe, with a little more energy, and some pace, will continue to improve, and get more and more laughs.

Review – Sweet Bird Of Youth (Old Vic)

So. The experience of the first half of this show, sadly was ruined by the most awful seats I have ever sat in… which is a shame, because the first act (of what I could see of it) consisted of a blisteringly brilliant two handed power struggle between an ageing actress, and her escort… (Kim Cattrall and Seth Numrich) that fizzed on stage with sexual tension, and anger.

So we begin, actress Alexandra De Lago is lying in bed, full of drink, and pills after running away from her movie premier, (once she saw the close up on her face. She realizes that her come back has been a failure as people begin to laugh, and she runs away from the premier, and gets horribly drunk.) We join her as she wakes in a paranoid, lost, panic. Desperately wanting her oxygen, and a pink pill…

Kim Cattrall is brilliant. Her portrayal of a woman in a crisis, trying desperately to wave away the haze of the night before is wonderful to watch, as she crawls around the room, trying to regain consciousness.

Seth Numrich is brilliant, as her slightly manipulative, yet strangely caring partner.
He watches her struggle back to life, then decides helps her. A strange power play is in motion, you get the feeling he is almost trying to subtly convince her that she should depend on him, this becomes even clearer when he convinces her to help him start his career as an actor…

…The scene then changes, we move, quietly, and beautifully from a hotel, to a  rich house, where Seth’s character, Chance, goes to find his one true love, Heavenly (Yes. That’s her name… His love for her is just as ridiculous.)

The scene change was one of the most subtle and beautiful I have seen in a long while, yet so incredibly simple.
A group of house servants, walk onto stage in real time, and simply change the set, as the scene happens. Its as if we are slipping from one place to another, you barely notice it happen.

The design (once we were allowed to move to another seat, too see it properly) is simple, effective, and quite beautiful. It doesn’t do anything massively flashy (except a wall moves away to reveal the inside) yet is used to its full potential, and is very beautiful.

There are some stunning moments, such as a political rally, which is heightened by television screens that show the action happening off stage to the audience, amidst a thunderstorm. I found it quite terrifying, and chilling to watch such harsh, and violent racism.

All in all, despite having a terrible seat to begin with, the evening was brilliant.
Tennessee Williams beautiful script sparkles with some genuinely beautiful moments, such as Alexandra’s (Cattrall) description of a close up shot in a film, something about her face screaming the pain of the past, while doing very little.
Cattrall and Numrich both give glittering performances, (Numrich reminded me of a younger Di-Caprio) whilst Cattrall in her red wig (which is not as bad as everyone is making out… in-fact its not bad at all. Its quite good. Everyone is just used to seeing Kim with bright blonde hair, a red wig is just a bit of a shock) gives a brilliant (as ever) performance, all under the wonderful direction of Marianne Elliot.

A wonderful evening at the theatre… made even better by the fact that we met Kim Cattrall afterwards.

 

NOTE: DO NOT SIT IN THE SLIPS AT THE OLD VIC! The seats may be cheaper, but the view is appalling… although the leg room is great.

 

Seen the show? Review your seat: http://www.seatplan.co.uk/

Review: Mission Drift (NTshed)

‘I think somebody, is burning down Las Vegas…’

 

The NT shed is so far, providing exactly what it set out to achieve, giving a home, and a platform for ‘experimental’ theatre that normally wouldn’t get seen at the National Theatre, even in the cottlesloe.
With its opening show ‘Table’, an intimate story of loves and losses around an ancient table, to the last show I saw there, ‘Bullet Catch’ where a man caught a bullet, fired from a gun, in his teeth, along with many other strange tricks… And now, Mission Drift, probably the greatest example of what the shed is setting out to achieve…

… So we enter the Shed, and find ourselves greeted by what looks at first glance, like a slapdash caravan park, Butlins hotel, cheap Vegas inspired little shanty town, for want of a better expression.
There are bottles of water everywhere, deck chairs, a bit of a garden porch, a stump with an axe in it… your standard trailer trash sort of thing, mixed with colorful neon.
The piece begins, and a small, blonde woman in a kimono with the most incredible, husky voice enters, and makes herself known as a sort of Emcee character for the evening.
She speaks in a  strange riddle like language, getting a few awkward laughs from the audience, but for the right reasons.
What was happening felt totally alien, especially being at the NT, we were being presented with something that wasn’t mushed up and spoon fed to us…

… and so we hurtle on. Across the deserts of america, to a woman who has just lost her job at a casino in Las Vegas, to the couple 400 years earlier that created it.
We watch as their stories unfold, displaying a harrowing look at humanity’s need for neon lights, machines to put our money into, power, and drink. Lots and lots of drink.
And all this is underpinned by an INCREDIBLE live score, performed mostly by the Emcee character on a giant grand piano… I could have listened to her sing for hours.

The whole piece felt like it was teetering on the edge of destruction, balancing very precariously, like the Vegas they portray. A dusty, dirty, sordid mess of human nature.
The actors sing, dance, multi-role, and drink beer, and its electric to watch.

For me, its winning qualities, were its moments of poignancy. Subtle sadness that seemed to underpin the whole piece, a sort of acceptance to what the story tells us, but with a hint of hope, that their is in-fact some sort of, hope.

All in all, the piece is a small sparkling little jewel, nestled in a strange red box, plonked on the South-bank.
The Shed seem to be doing something brilliant, and the rest of London seem’s to be following them, with the Royal Courts ‘Open Court’ and the Lyric Hammersmith’s ‘Secret Theatre’… Londons theatre’s are becoming a very exciting place to be right now.

Review: Secret Cinema:20

Where do I even begin with this one…

 

…I deliberately held off reviewing this one, mainly because I don’t feel I could review it without divulging a few little secrets, and since the production has closed, I felt I could divulge a few…

Also, the word Review isn’t appropriate for this. I am going to write down a few memories from the piece, documenting my experience… as every single person who entered the 10 story building, experienced something different…

To begin with the film is called Brazil, I hadn’t seen it.

I arrived with my companion, hot, sweaty, late, and a little jittery… we had no idea what to expect, and had forgotten our marigold gloves (that we were told to bring)…
… Once we had gone through security, we were told that our documentation had details of which floor we had to report to. So I was split from my companion, and sent down to the basement, to be met by a charming tour guide called Sophia Foxton Smith, (or something like that) of whom I kept meeting throughout the whole night.
She took me, and a few others through some derelict sheltered housing rooms, asking us if we would like to move in… of which one was full of pigeons.

After a while, I was set loose into the building, allowed to roam, but with subtle hints to be at the windows at quarter to ten.
So, I entered a lift, and found myself in a world of strange dancing, brain washing, file cabinets, computers, parties, bars, and test tubes full of dreams.

It would take hours to write about everything.

A personal favorite moment was when I entered a lift, expecting to be taken to the 7th floor, but upon arriving at the 7th floor, I found myself in a secret meeting, run by a group of nuns, organised to take down the organisation running the building. The nuns taught us how to use foam guns, and to throw anything we could get our hands on.

I found myself in a party, run by an elderly woman, to celebrate the success of her recent plastic surgery.

I was shown a machine, spitting out random tweets, all with the word ‘Remember’ in them.
(The guy in the room came to talk to me briefly about it afterwards… its all about the small personal interaction that make this piece what it is)

I ran away from the boss of the company, down flights of stairs.

I was brain washed.

I entered elevators with men wearing no trousers.

I was interrogated, and asked if I would break a babies finger for £10,000.

I crawled through filing cabinets to find hidden rooms.

Walked onto floors with just a pink heart balloon floating.

I put my most terrifying dream into a test tube, and hung it onto a wall with everyone else’s dreams…

… I went into what felt like over 100 rooms, and still didn’t see everything, and I think that’s part of the charm. I had a totally different experience to the couple behind me in the Que to get in.

 

Then, at quarter to ten, everyone assembled at a window, and watched an incredible Arial display, and a form of dance routine outside choreographed by Wayne Mcgregor.

The whole experience of the evening was incredible, I felt truly immersed in this detailed, and fantastic word, encompassing all your senses. Literally.

Then tossed out into the world, with a small goodbye from familiar faces through the night (Including Sophia Foxton Smith, who remembered me all night).

All in all, the experience was hot, and sweaty, and tiring, but absolutely incredible. I can’t quite put it into words, and I’m not sure this review has done secret cinema any justice… But I will say this. I am an un-repentant fan. Don’t listen to the grumblers about ticket prices… its three hours of your life you will remember forever… honestly. Mind blowing.

BOOK FOR SECRET CINEMA 21! YOU WONT REGRET IT!

 

Review: Bullet Catch (NT)

A understated, slightly shy man walks onto stage, and asks an audience, if it is possible to force someone to do something they don’t want to do… and it seem’s it is, as throughout the course of an evening, he chooses an audience member, and convinces them to shoot him with a gun…

The whole evening feels like a sensitive, and un-cocky version of a Derren Brown show, and is quietly poignant, as he ask’s the audience if they would like to be shown how a magic floating table works, allowing them to either watch, or look away, thanking those who watched, and those who didnt…

Overall the evening was tense, and nerve wracking, but the end trick had too many loop holes, and there were far to many opportunity’s for it to be staged… But an entertaining evening none the less.