A Zoom performance by Beverley Bishop, directed by Peter Beck, Finding Magic includes an audience recorded at the time of the livestream, to give a sense of interactivity.
A magic show on the surface, this is a personal journey of a mother who has lost a child and finds surreal humour after bereavement.
This is a fifty-minute show with a playful edge which is being performed live daily as well as being available in this on-demand version.
The finality of the death of a son translates into the storytelling of a clown, of the surrealism of cliché. Bishop is a friendly and open performer who also has a gift for close-up magic.
Making things reappear, or change their shape. Creating the unimaginable illusion. Facing loss and love head-on with all that comes with it.
There’s a deceptive lightness here (“he always wanted to be Peter Pan”) which leads into a cry for the return of hope.
Not an easy watch, this may be a story “without an arc, or a journey”), but it does capture the heart at times, and Bishop should be applauded for reaching into her experience to create it
You can stream Finding Magic on-demand through the Fringe – tickets here where you can also book for the live perfornances in Edinburgh.
*** (and a half)