Tricksters and enchantment
IN the 1880s, Mr and Mrs Alexander’s show tours New Zealand and is hugely popular. It covers the spectrum of music hall entertainment — magic tricks, telepathy, psychic phenomena and rude jokes. Do the Alexanders really have special powers — or are they con artists?
Their story is brought to us by Rollicking Entertainment, consisting of Christchurch performers Lizzie Tollemache and David Ladderman. Research into this aspect of theatrical history has provided them with a good range of onstage tricks, some of them predictable, such as magicianship involving cups and balls, and spoonbending; and others, including a fearsome antic featuring a terrifyinglooking possum trap, less so. Tollemache and Ladderman switch effortlessly between their roles of 21stcentury investigators speaking directly to a modern audience, and colonial vaudevillians enthralling whoever turns up. They don’t take things too seriously and display impressive resourcefulness when things don’t go as planned.
Their characters are charming: Mrs Alexander confident and poised, able to cope with anything, while her husband optimistically bumbles around the stage. Dramatic costumes and lighting add to the tawdry sophistication.
Perhaps the best thing about the show is audience participation. Hats off to those goodhumoured audience members who cheerfully allowed themselves to be cajoled on to the stage to have their minds read, take pulses and generally do the Alexanders’ bidding.
Funny, often surprising and suitable for all ages, Mr and Mrs Alexander takes us back to a less complicated but not necessarily more credulous era. It’s an hour long, and the short season will end on Saturday. Last night’s audience was delighted.