Forced Entertainment: Real Magic at HOME

Contact and HOME present Forced Entertainment: Real Magic at HOME Manchester, Manchester, 29 November–1 December 2017, from £10 - Book now

Forced Entertainment are all about exploring the possibilities of theatre. Can one actor just say the same word over and over? Could the play last for 12 or even 24 hours? And do the audience just watch, or can they perform the show themselves?

In Real Magic the company is again trying something tricky: a mind reading act. Only it turns out the magicians keep getting it wrong, failing to guess the correct answer. So they try again…and again…and again. Now, that might sound like a recipe for madness – and it certainly does come across as a touch cracked – but with each attempt the emphasis changes, until all sorts of weird ideas start to emerge.

Real Magic reminds me of the feeling you get when you repeat the same word over and over. At first it loses meaning, then you start to notice its component parts, before finally it starts to become a sort of therapeutic mantra that is beyond regular language.

Or, put another way, it’s rather like looking at a magic eye: what at first appears to be meaningless suddenly makes sense. Presented by Contact and HOME.