Skip to main content

Every Last Trick at The Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

I tweeted during the interval of Every Last Trick that I thought I was tripping while watching the show. After having then seen the second act, I think I can certainly confirm that they were some pretty high end drugs.

All this in the positive respect. by the way. Every Last Trick for me acted very much like a legal high (plant food if anyone asks), with some of the most bizarre incidents possible.

A cast of four and an elephant provided a riotous show lead by head clown Aitor Basauri as Juan, he from Barcelona, well maybe not, but you get the gist. A heavy accent, a bit of conveniently mispronounced English. That sort of thing. A magical performance in every sense, down to his handling on the performance I saw, of the loosened belt audience member. Beware the front rows!

Juan's short suffering wife, played by Sophie Russell was also a delight. The perfect flapper crossed with a liberal dose of insanity. Who was equally impressive being manhandled around the stage unconscious. Large drawers!

Toby Park as Tom was all upper class, adventurer, with elephant in tow and looking for his former love. He quickly found himself embroiled in the mad antics. Give her a blow!

Finally completing the line-up was the glorious loose limbed Adrien Gygax, the most frantic of the performers, with a tremendous physical ability. Bandy legs!

The set was also quite a bit of a star as well, with moving parts, raising parts and on occasion failing parts. On the subject of failing, I would perhaps be fascinated to see what went wrong via a second viewing, as its one of those plays, with such skilled performers and such random action, that if there was a prop fail or a line forgotten, they wove it smoothly into the play.

I read in a review of Every Last Trick on the website of the local Chronicle & Echo newspaper that this was perhaps their least silly production at the Royal. Having not seen any previous ones, I would be concerned of what level drugs their previous would be like.

This truly was one of the most bizarre experiences that I have witnessed, and it suited me because I have a brain like this on many occasions myself.

You need to go to see this because it has the potential to make your jaw ache and your brain melt in equal measure and it really is an experience. Yes, it is certainly an experience...

Every Last Trick is on at the Royal & Derngate, Northampton until Saturday 10th May, 2014
Every Last Trick trailer
http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk - Every Last Trick

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Dear Evan Hansen at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

First performed in 2015, Dear Evan Hansen remains the musical of the modern teen's life, showcasing all the troubles in that generation of popularity and social media. And as this long UK tour of the West End and before that Broadway smash hits the Royal & Derngate, it offers a troubling mirror on modern society. Before seeing this show, I had avoided all knowledge of the story Dear Evan Hansen tells, and with that came a joyful voyage of discovery as the captivating story evolved. Therefore, if you have also managed to avoid the story, skip the next paragraph and enjoy a new story to be found. Evan Hansen is a troubled teen who struggles to fit into society and cannot find friends. As a result, his therapist has suggested that he write letters to himself, "Dear Evan Hansen." When one of these letters is found on the body of an equally troubled teen, Evan finds himself spiralling into a world of fictitious friendship, which gets increasingly out of control. The stor...

Review of Shrek (NMTC) at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Three and a half years ago, in a land far far away, in a world very different to the one we are now in, I saw the touring professional production of Shrek The Musical , it was a mixed bag of quality, tilted extremely heavily in favour of one particular character (not the one you might expect) and not firing on all cylinders much of the time. One and a half years after my last visit to the Derngate theatre, I return to see the homegrown Northampton Musical Theatre Company's own take on the very same show. Would they be able to breathe more life into the show than the professionals did in that distant land? It is a bit of a yes and no really. Pretty much all of this is done to the best possible standard, and at times, with being an amateur show you could easily forget, they all have normal day jobs. The show oozes professional quality at times. The set looks magnificent, the costumes (from Molly Limpet's Theatrical Emporium) are superb, and as ever with NMTC, the backstage team c...

Review of Friends - The Musical Parody at Milton Keynes Theatre

The One Where 2026 starts in a world of confusion. And so, 2026 is upon us and for my first trip to the theatre this year, one of my most significant reviewing challenges was to occur. Touring to Milton Keynes Theatre is Friends - The Musical Parody , based, unsurprisingly, on that little American show that ran to a few audience members for ten years. However, I confess that I was not, and have never been in that audience, never having seen a single episode of the show. However, always up for a review challenge and doing my due diligence by having a Friends superfan as my plus one, I headed to Milton Keynes with anticipation. For those unfamiliar with the show, I could say I can’t help; however, a quick review of some of the information you might need (thanks, Google and my plus one). Running for ten years between 1994 and 2004 with 236 episodes (quiz question, you are welcome), the main characters consisted of Phoebe (ditzy, writer of sad songs), Monica (in possession of an unfeasibly...