THE GIFT: A FEAST / A GAME / A RITUAL / A SHOW

…and a bizarre and wonderful evening of fun.

Immersive, experiential, experimental and at times exhilarating. This is the kind of theatre that you will either love or hate, but frankly if you hate this kind of theatre then get a life! Open your minds and allow yourself to enter a different world, a parallel existence  where being challenged is fun with a capital F!

Mella Faye has created a perfect Christmas treat for grown ups and what a joy it is to be served something that is not kiddy obsessed. It has no reference to the baby Jesus or Santa either, or at least it didn’t until later…

It opens in mystery, a soothsayer welcomes you and deals a deck of cards, those cards define where you will sit and which weird clan you will become a part of.

And then the fun starts, a welcome drink and a starter of a very delicious empanada, some music, your clan leader and a brief introduction and then sharing platters of tasty food, really tasty and generous too. And over the feast you chat with the people, mainly strangers, around your table. It’s a pretty sure bet that if the people around you have chosen to come to this you will get on and we certainly did.

The gift is about wishes and your guides, The Magician, The Fool, The Emperor, Justice, The Lover and The Devil, are there to entertain and to guide you. Wonderfully costumed in a room where spooky woodlands are projected onto the walls and gentle haze softens the dimly lit space, the evening starts and before long the games begin.

To explain further could or should I say would spoil the evening but expect to be be embraced, challenged, amused, loved and entertained. I met some really lovely people, laughed out loud and at times was moved, properly so.

I am choosing not to say more because should you chose to go, and you should, then you are as much a part of the experience as the excellent company that take you all along on an evening of madness and mystery. And my star rating here is not only for the event and for the venue but for my fellow Magician clan.

Oh and as for the baby Jesus, well yes, in my clan he did crop up but that’s for me and my fellow magicians to know – not you.

The gift runs at The Old Market until December 21

Andrew Kay

4 December

The Old Market

Rating: