MIND MANGLER
by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Fields
Directed by Hannah Sharkey
New World Stages
Reviewed by David Spencer
English actor-writer-raconteur Stephen Fry, during an interview some 11 years ago, made a fascinating comparison between American and British comedic heroes, in particular as featured in sitcoms. American sitcom heroes, he said, always come out on top no matter what (I would add to that: despite their flaws; though Mr. Fry doesn’t think those flaws are important enough to note); whereas British ones are the struggling losers. Contrast, say, tavern owner Sam Malone against hotel owner Basil Fawlty.
Fry cites the scene in Animal House, in which, during a toga party, one of the frat boys is sitting playing banal folk music on a guitar. John Belushi, as “Bluto” Blutarsky, suddenly grabs the guitar out of the guy’s hands, smashes it to bits against the wall, hands the decapitated strut back to him and says, “Sorry,” as if it were a minor mishap. It’s Fry’s contention that the British actor would want to be the guy playing the guitar.
His generalization can brook lots of argument, of course, there are American audiences who love the Britcoms Fry describes, as well as a number of American sitcoms spun off them, such as Norman Lear’s All in the Family (‘Til Death Us Do Part) and Sandford and Son (Steptoe and Son); more recently Call Me Kat (Miranda). But he does have a point about origination. Theatrical endeavors like The Play That Goes Wrong (and its Goes Wrong offspring, among them Peter Pan, A Christmas Carol and, on television, The Goes Wrong Show) tend, naturally somehow, to be created in the UK. Why is this important?
Because it doesn’t always translate. Taking the most casual survey via my memory, it seems that the imports that have caught fire in the US have been ensemble pieces. The stories move at a reasonable clip, there are several interrelationships to keep track of, you dwell less on winner-type vs loser-type and more on mechanics, suspense and resolution.
Mind Mangler, however, though a product of the Goes Wrong company, is about one guy (Henry Lewis). An overweight, second-rate illusionist—mentalism a specialty—whose life offstage is a shambles, and whose illusions onstage are as apt to go awry as not. He struggles to remain poised and controlled and mysterious, but his style is cornball and the desperation that haunts and drives him is too often conspicuously, barely under the surface. There aren’t many surprises in the evening’s programming and slender, overlaid storyline, but among the few are that, when you least expect it, the tricks work. Likewise, the Mangler’s beleaguered but loyal assistant (Jonathan Sayer) is only inept half the time. The uncertainty adds a layer of characterization and gives the actors something to play beyond the basic comic premise.
But that premise…those two fellows working very hard to sustain it over two acts (the enterprise is courageous enough to be replete with intermission, confident you’ll come back)…is certainly stretched to its limit. And a bit beyond.
How funny you find it will depend on your sensibility, of course. The night I attended, the audience reaction was pokey at first. Eventually there was a breakthrough point where they decided to make their pact with Mind Mangler and relaxed into it. For which they were rewarded with a happy ending.
Which suggests (to me anyway) that Mind Mangler’s greatest illusion might be managing to pull it off. Just.
The script, by the way, is by the two actors plus Henry Shields. The character was created by the three plus Penn & Teller. And the very able direction is by Hannah Sharkey.