Theatre review: The Majority

Although the current policy at the Dorfman is not to play shows in rep, Mosquitoes gets a bit of a break as another show uses its in-the-round set to tell a different kind of story – although there’s still buzzing insects involved, as The Majority’s design (by Jemima Robinson) features a lot of bees and honeycomb motifs. It’s the latest play by Rob Drummond, aka that bloke I shot that time, who keeps an audience participation element but spreads it out equally this time: The last few years have been marked by hugely impactful votes on binary, not always well-defined choices, and this is the structure The Majority is based around. As with the recent Terror, every audience member is given a keypad which will record their vote on a number of yes/no questions posed by Drummond. Most of them will serve to give an idea of the audience’s moral position but a couple will affect where his story goes and how it’s told.

Theatre review: Bullet Catch

This is going to border on a not-review as I don't really feel as if I'm qualified to tell you what it's like to watch Bullet Catch, the second show at the NT's Shed - at least not from the point of view of the audience. Rob Drummond's one-man show isn't a magic show, but it's a show about magic - or at least one that uses magic tricks as part of its narrative. Perhaps the most notorious magic trick ever is the titular bullet catch, in which a volunteer from the audience shoots a live round at the magician, who catches it - usually in his teeth. Notorious because it's the one that's most often proved fatal to the performer. Such was the case with the (fictional, as far as I can tell) Victorian magician Drummond's show focuses on, accidentally killed by a volunteer who then had to live with the psychological consequences (not to mention the police's inquiries.)