Review: Table For Two (WIP),  The Glitch

Is love magical? Jack Kenyon believes so, though maybe less in the mystical sense and more in terms of misdirection and flash; Kenyon is after all a magician, and the tricks pulled throughout this show certainly prove his exceptional skill, but it’s beyond these moments that some more interesting substance may well lie.

This is largely thanks to the unusual setup of the evening. Kenyon is a magical man unlucky in love, so on the advice of some cutting words from an ex-lover he’s decided the best thing he can do to improve as a person is to stage a show where every night he seemingly picks an audience member at random to join him on stage and be his practice date for a pretend romantic dinner. 

During this dinner Kenyon proves himself as a likable performer who’s eager to impress his date and us in the audience with card tricks and overly elaborate attempts at mind-reading. Some of these land and some quickly prove a bit much for his dinner guest to follow, but Kenyon never loses his stride and has a wonderfully assured stage presence throughout.

It’s a premise that somehow feels natural on the surface yet crazier the more you think about it. As a setup for some magic tricks, it’s fun and a novel theme, but as a serious in-character practice that Kenyon often tries to remind us it really is, frequently referring back to his ex-lover and his strong desire to be a better boyfriend, it becomes absurd to the point of comedic. What kind of mad figure would actually do all this as a form of therapy instead of, say, actual therapy? It’s quite a funny element to the whole thing that the show might gain from leaning more into.

All this said, a core technical note for the show would be its reliance on projection, as unfortunately this work-in-progress showing saw difficulties behind the scenes leaving Kenyon without his expected video aid. The magic and his performance easily carry the show without it, but often Kenyon would indicate what should have been projected or longingly search a big empty screen. Making the show projection-proof, or ensuring that projection is always working, would be an ideal development for what is by all accounts a promising new show.

Written by Jack Kenyon & Isabelle Dooley-Carmichael

Table for Two has completed its run at The Glitch. It will play at EdFringe from Friday 7 to Saturday 29 August.