Xavier Mortimer is a talented magician-musician-mime artist and clown. Think David Copperfield, Marcel Marceau and Paul Daniels rolled into one. While he is an illusionist, what you see him doing will have you believe he can really do magic real Harry Potter stuff, right before your eyes. His skills are amazing. He can pluck soap bubbles from the air, play with them, then POP! they disappear. Blink, and hes changed costume and you never notice a movement. A tap of his wand, and music appears literally. His elements are not just musical instruments or traditional circus and magic tricks, such as the diabolo which he does use he plays with air and toys with shadow. And these are his real strengths. Mortimer manages to draw out a piecemeal magic sketch show for an hour by interspersing live tricks with scenes acted out in front of a white screen, with his shadow orchestra, an intriguing ensemble of three players which are independent visual doppelgängers or doubles. Sometimes sinister, others benign, never mirroring each other, the ensemble of shadows and live performer combine to produce something which will have you wondering for a long time afterwards how he did it. Mortimers performance wasnt faultless, but it was incredibly entertaining. Not quite the new Marcel Marceau, in terms of mime, and more of a showcase taster of skills than a subtle narrative structure, but it worked very well on its own terms.
