As the circus master said....

...that was one rollercoaster of a show!

Wow! We had a sell out audience with additional people having to sit on the floor, and we even had to turn people away. If only you all bought tickets when they first went on sale and we could have booked another night!

To the left is a photo I took during the set-up. Can you guess
which suitcase is Houdini's?

Houdini's Suitcase was a roaring success. It starts with an old man who waits... surrounded by suitcases filled with memories. As he flicks through old photos you can hear the haunting sounds of his past echoing round the theatre. Then the old circus master appears out of one case and introduces some of the big acts of the day... notably The Master of Pain, who appears to be very squeamish at the act of sword swallowing, and who can be heard to murmer 'Ow, it hurts' through the large blade in his throat! We also meet the dancing bear adorned with clown accessories and chains, who performs a slow and sad dance with the old man before the bear's even sadder end.

I don't want to give too much away as you really need to see this show, (if you missed it last night) but I will say that Pickled Image beautifully and sensitively mixed laughter and sorrow to illustrate the highlights and low points of the old mans life. The two puppeteers, (with Dik also playing the part of the old man, with a puppet style full-head mask), excelled themselves as they performed a highly emotive, extremely clever, and quite frankly superb piece of theatre.

If you've watched these guys before, or you were at the theatre last night, I'd love to hear your views on the piece so feel free to leave a comment.

Lastly, well done Pickled Image. Just amazing.