Impossible @ The Mimetic Festival Review

To quote Oscar Wilde, ‘Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable’. An apt quote for describing the ever perplexing yet entertaining art form of magic. We’re continually taught to believe what has been proven, to believe only in logic and statistics, however wouldn’t it be fun to just forget all of this and to just believe that the impossible can indeed be made possible?

Neil Henry's Impossible

Neil Henry‘s Impossible sets out to challenge the norm and engage the magicians amongst us with an evening of fast paced tricks, non-stop laughs and an hour of escapism. Located underground in the Waterloo vaults, you can’t help but think that you’re starring in a Harry Potter-esque scene, as the dark, cavernous setting transports the audience to a mysterious archaic location. Henry’s vitality offers a contrast to the dim setting, as his charismatic stage presence never falters.

A conversation between himself and the audience, Henry encourages the audience to become more involved in the performance, randomly selecting audience members to take part and in some cases, become the magician themselves. The tension is palpable as Henry randomly selects an audience member to take to the stage. With audience participation not being everyone’s cup of tea, this can easily make or break the success of a performance, however luckily for Henry, the audience are good sports and take part.

From card tricks to mind games, Henry presents a treasure chest of tricks, as he meanders through anecdotes of placing bets to quoting Oscar Wilde. There’s never a dull moment as the evening encourages leaving all of your cares behind and believing in the impossible. The evening is fun, amusing and never once takes itself too seriously! 4/5

Review written by Lucy Basaba.

Neil Henry’s Impossible was shown at the Mimetic Festival at The Vaults on Tuesday 25th November. For more information on future productions at the festival, visit here…

Written by Theatrefullstop