to be part of his act and sawn in two . This was after Christabel had put an ad in the newspaper searching for non-political work . She turned down the job .
Christopher : So you have these forces churning through society at the time we set the play which is 1905 . That is the same year in fact that The Magic Circle was founded . We tried to reflect these backstories in the show . Music hall and vaudeville entertainment were the mainstream for society at the time . So it seemed impossible to write a play about this period without working these societal issues into the fabric of the piece . It sounds very academic to talk about it all . But in the show , don ’ t forget we ’ re just a couple of clowns and it ’ s all done in a fun way .
V - AND WHAT IS NORVIL ' S STORY ?
Christopher : Norvil doesn ' t feel at home in his own skin . He ' s playing the role of the magician in dressed in black that tradition says he should play . But he ' d much rather be something more special than that . Norvil ’ s story is about anyone really who yearns to get out of their own way and be something out of the ordinary . He takes inspiration from his big sister Josephine . Her strength and non-conformist suffragette rah rah encourages him . And while that stuff also annoys Norvil , it ' s more of an annoyance with himself and his own expectations to follow the rules and burden of tradition . I think Norvil ’ s journey is inspiring for both young people and adults alike who want to either tip toe or full-out tap dance to the beat of their own drum . In other words , just be yourself !
V - WHAT MAGIC IS IN THE SHOW ?
Christopher : Good question ! If the story is the backbone of the show , the magic is the flesh . Obviously a theatre magic show set in 1905 will have magic that ’ s familiar to many audiences . But you could describe the magic in this show as ‘ old school , reimagined .’ Desireé and I have been performing together since 2006 . However the story had to drive all the magic in this show so many routines were totally re-written , re-choreographed , re-everything . So we often started from scratch with routines we thought we knew very well . While audiences may have seen some of the props before , we think it ’ s safe to say they ’ ve never seen them performed this way .
For example with linking rings , we had to figure out how to balance the moments of skill and beauty of the magic with pure clowning mayhem that was necessary at that part of the story . Another example is our broom suspension routine where the assistant is traditionally asleep and passively involved . But in our show we turned it into
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