Bullet Catch - A Wonder Of An Ilusión
Thursday, January 22, 2015
 |
| Rob Drummond - Ilusionista |
Bullet Catch a one person (not all the time) play written
and performed and co-directed (with David Overend) by Rob Drummond (a Scotsman
from Glasgow) runs from January 15 to February 7. I attended the official
opening, at the Revue Stage on Granville Island, his last Wednesday, January 21. Since Mr. Drummond gets shot by a 9mm
Beretta by the end of the show you must suppose three things:
1. Rob Drummond has good life insurance.
2. He somehow survives this ordeal and is able to catch a
previously marked bullet between his teeth.
3. No theatrical institutions, in this case PuSh International
Performing Arts Festival and the Arts Club Theatre Company who co-present
Bullet Catch would take the chance of having an empty theatre for many days if
the star, Rob Drummond were not to survive the almost point blank shooting.
Like many presentations by PuSh Bullet Catch cannot be
cornered into a category. I will not proceed here to give you any further
information on what it is or isn’t. Suffice to know that the slightly longer
than 60 minute show is funny, entertaining but best of all it is about a man who
believes in the goodness within us all in spite of all the pitfalls of our history
until now.
But I must warn you. We can be lucky and thank the
heavens that Mr. Drummond does not sell, door to door, in Burnaby, Electroluxes
and Encyclopaedia Britannicas with a side gift of steak knives. You would not
have a chance to say, “No.” And pity anybody going to Kingsway or Marine Drive
to buy a used car. Mr. Drummond would saddle you with the worst car ever made,
a Chevrolet Epica.
Somehow this would-be wrestler could sell you anything
with his disarming smile and manner. I was sold, satisfied with my
current Malibu and Hoover (a canister).
What makes Bullet Catch special is how in an age of
special effects where we must be wowed more and more with escalation in order
to be amazed, this show brings back the idea of magic and not knowing how these
effects are done. I would like to call Mr. Drummond not an playwright/actor/magician
but a playwright/actor/illusionist. Good magicians are best defined as illusionists
as we all know (or do we?) that magic does not exist.
I love how different languages define and use similar
words. In Spanish ilusión is much like illusion in English. But there is a secondary definition in
Spanish that is far more important and more used. An ilusión is a combination
of a hope/desire that you may daydream about.
No
rechaces tus sueños. ¿Sin la ilusión el mundo que sería?
Ramón De Campoamor
Don’t reject your dreams. Without ilusión what would the
world be?
Warning: In this play Mr. Drummond reveals one of his
magic tricks. While I was taking his picture he told me that a fine New York
City firm had insured him. I wonder if it includes a provision for being done
away by the Scottish Association of Magicians for revealing the trick. So when
Mr. Drummond shows you how a particular trick is performed I suggest you take
his advice and close your eyes. If not how can you keep believing in the power
of magic?
My Rosemary and I, while living in Burnaby did succumb to the persuasion of a Drummond-like Italian who with the promise of free steak knives in our hands pulled a Cyclonic Vacuum Cleaner from his hat and we ended up paying (in interest) twice the value of the machine.
My Rosemary and I, while living in Burnaby did succumb to the persuasion of a Drummond-like Italian who with the promise of free steak knives in our hands pulled a Cyclonic Vacuum Cleaner from his hat and we ended up paying (in interest) twice the value of the machine.
