Review of The Mind Mangler at Milton Keynes Theatre

Mischief Theatre has been creating havoc in theatres across the world now for ten years with shows like The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong regularly doing the rounds. Their latest incarnation, reaching Milton Keynes Theatre this week on a UK tour, is The Mind Mangler, a two-man solo show (with some audience participation) offering more chaos, this time around mind-bending-mind-reading.

The Mind Mangler is played by Mischief Theatre co-founder Henry Lewis with a mixture of menace, danger, and cuddliness, a devastating combination. For anyone who has seen Lewis on stage before, you will be well aware of his tremendous stage presence, a booming voice full of the greatest of enunciation and perhaps, with The Mind Mangler he has one of his greatest creations to use these skills.

It is beyond the stage presence however that this character delves, into one of self-mocking in the extreme, the ability to try to smooth his suit out as his self-importance fails as his mind-reading ability does. Self-deprecation is often one of the funniest sources of jokes, and with Lewis, and the genius Mischief Theatre writers, there is some remarkably funny material here.

Alongside Lewis as "Audience Member" is another Mischief founder, Jonathan Sayer and he becomes the perfect foil and annoyance to The Mind Magler, over-eager to get involved and also key to the evolving storyline. Here Sayer plays a character much like he has elsewhere with Mischief, but sometimes familiarity is all an audience needs and they lap it up, and you can tell often that there are many Mischief fans in the crowd by their reactions (I confess here that I am one of them).

Presentation and delivery is key with this show and the speed of the piece is remarkable, rarely getting bogged down in any trick segment, or describing them as they really are, sketches, and the only time the pace drops in with the interaction with the audience where it becomes sometimes more chatty. However, because of the skill of Lewis and Sayer, the deftness with which they handle these audience moments never bores, in fact sometimes this mines some of the funniest aspects of the show.

Also, for anyone fearful of the mere prospect of audience participation, you need not be with the The Mind Mangler as this is so well handled to never deliberately embarrass or frighten audience members. The only time that you could consider it embarrassing to someone from the audience, is through the self-infliction of filling in a secret card offered during the filtering in of the audience. There is no compunction to do so, and if you do, you only have yourself to blame (or, admittedly your mother in the performance I saw).

While many could say The Mind Mangler is a one-trick pony of failed mind-reading, the depth of characterisation, story-telling and just simply great presentation and stage presence makes Lewis and Sayer a tragical evening of entertainment like no other and should be top of your theatre shopping list if this travels near to you on its tour to Liverpool and Bath.

With the power of my Small Mind, I compel you to see The Mind Mangler.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Monday 3rd June 2024 at the Milton Keynes Theatre.

The Mind Mangler runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Wednesday 5th June 2024 before continuing its tour.

For further details about Mischief Theatre see their website at mischiefcomedy.com

For further details about Milton Keynes see their website at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

Production photos: Craig Sugden

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...

Review of Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Despite now having seen a few dance shows encompassing many different styles, I had yet to see one developed by Sir Matthew Bourne, a controversial player in his time, but as the relatively recent knighthood suggests, now very much embraced by the establishment. So, does Romeo + Juliet live up to his name, that is the question? So, first, this might normally be where I give you a brief outline of the story, but, for one, most have a general understanding of the love disaster of William Shakespeare's play already, and two, as it turns out from the Bourne production, a huge amount of what you might be familiar with has gone or been dramatically changed anyway. There is shocking complicity in murders, there are different moments of murder and gone are the warring factions of the Montagues and Capulets. Characters themselves feel very different at times also, to such an extent that even knowing the play doesn't always make it clear who is who at times. So, if all that sounds...

Review of Oliver! by R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Two years ago this week, I saw for the first time the older faction of the Royal & Derngate Youth Theatre perform Sweeney Todd (I had seen one month before the younger part create the delightful Honk!). While a quite brilliant level of standard has continued in their productions since, nothing has quite reached that optimum point of Sweeney for me. Oliver! is their latest production and this epic scale show merges all of the age groups together to create a spellbinding piece of youthful and lively theatre that is rightfully packing the auditorium like no R&D youth show before. I have to say straight up that Oliver! does not beat the legend that is Sweeney for me, however it comes as close as we have ever been to doing so. A lot of this perhaps is down to my personal taste and Sweeney's two stunning leads, which have yet to be bettered. The macabre nature of Sweeney also gelled with me and Lionel Bart's tale, despite being packed with more known tunes than seems possib...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog