Real Magic @HOME

Sheffield’s award-winning Forced Entertainment makes its HOME debut in association with Contact with three performances of its acclaimed production Real Magic

By Lee Isherwood | 6 November 2017

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Real Magic has wowed audiences across Europe, including the Edinburgh Festival, La Bastille in Paris, and the Festspiele’s Theatreffen in Berlin. The production runs Wednesday 29 November – Friday 1 December 2017.

Forced Entertainment have built their reputation by creating a world of absurd disconnection, struggle and comical repetition, at the same time as challenging audiences’ expectations of what is theatre. To the sound of looped applause and canned laughter, a group of performers take part in an impossible illusion – part mind-reading feat, part cabaret act, part chaotic game show – in which they are endlessly replaying the moment of defeat and the moment of hope.

Caught in a world of second-chances and second-guesses, variations and changes, distortions and transformations, Real Magic takes the audience on a hallucinatory journey, creating a compelling performance about optimism,
individual agency, and the desire for change.

“All of our work, for us, approaches the question of what theatre might be now, how it can speak now, and how it might make contact with audiences now,”

says Forced Entertainment’s Artistic Director Tim Etchells. “For us, theatre is always a kind of negotiation, something that thrives on its liveness, and its potential for debate and conversation.”

Real Magic sees regular Forced Entertainment performers Richard Lowdon and Claire Marshall joined by Jerry Killick, who has worked with the group on numerous projects including Bloody Mess and And On the Thousandth Night…

Real Magic is not suitable for under-16s, and contains some strong language.

PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
Wed 29 Nov 2017 – 19:30 (press night)
Thu 30 Nov 2017 – 19:30
Fri 1 Dec 2017 – 19:30
TICKETS £16.50 – £10 (concessions available).