24 Oct A Sense of Direction – Theatre Magic

Most days, when he is not in a rehearsal room or a television studio, Scott Penrose can be found in his workshop in Essex, surrounded by various theatrical tricks and illusion equipment, and the tools he uses to make them. “It is half workshop and half magic museum, and it is all covered with a heavy sprinkling of sawdust,” he says. “I have an engineer friend who thinks I should pack everything away, covered in plastic, but I love to be surrounded by it all.”

Penrose, 53, is a magician and a magic consultant. Since 2003, he has designed and supplied magic tricks and illusions to the worlds of film, television, theatre and children’s entertainment. His most recent project, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost, set in the world of vaudevillian variety and produced by Tall Stories, has just opened at the Southwark Playhouse.

“Magic is a very diverse industry,” Penrose explains. “There are lots of different magicians doing lots of different stuff in lots of different environments. There are some that specialise in children’s entertainment, or close-up magic, or stage magic. There are some that work in holiday parks, or on cruise ships, or at weddings. Some magicians do it for money. Some magicians do it for the art of it.”

“My real love is helping other people perform magic,” he continues. “For some reason, I don’t like to perform myself. Lots of magicians love to perform and be applauded for their act, but that has never interested me at all. I’ve always found sitting in an audience, watching someone else perform a trick that I have designed and taught them the most rewarding thing to do.”

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Penrose fell in love with magic when he was young. His father, John Penrose, was a Savile Row tailor by trade but an accomplished amateur magician and member of The Magic Circle, the fabled society for magicians founded at an Italian restaurant in Soho in 1905, too. Penrose recalls watching his father make outfits for magicians as a child – often, he adds, with a few more pockets than usual.

Penrose became a passionate amateur magician himself but started his professional career as an investment analyst, only occasionally moonlighting as a consultant on children’s television. It was not until he was made redundant in 2003 and struggled to find another job in banking that he decided to give magic a go professionally. “Originally, I thought I would do it for a few months while I was looking for work,” he remembers. “I had so much fun, though, that I never looked back.”

The list of projects Penrose has since worked on is long and diverse, and includes everything from big-budget movies (2006’s Scoop and 2007’s Magicians) to high-profile television shows (BBC One’s Hustle) to West End musicals (2005’s Spamalot and 2015’s Bend It Like Beckham). He has also risen to the top of the magical world, serving as president of The Magic Circle for five years between 2014 and 2019, and becoming an honorary vice-president of the British Magical Society.

“You have to pass an exam and take an oath to become a member of The Magic Circle,” Penrose explains. “It means different things to different people. For many, it is a social thing, a place where they can have a drink and a chat with fellow magicians and see a lecture. For others, it is an academic thing, because it has a library of 20,000 books on magic. Essentially, it exists to promote the art of magic and protect its secrets. I know that sounds a bit Masonic, but it isn’t.”

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The world of magic consultancy has changed over the last two decades, according to Penrose. Television work has declined due to the disappearance “big, Saturday night shows”, while the number of people working in the field has increased. “There are definitely a lot more people doing this kind of thing,” he says. “A lot of actors now do a bit of magic, too. People have had to diversify to supplement their income. But there will always be big, complex jobs that require a magician.”

The secret to successfully incorporating magic into a stage show has not changed, though: it is simply a case of deploying the right illusion at the right time. “Some people think throwing a load of money at it is the answer, but it often isn’t,” he adds. “It doesn’t matter how simple or how complex a trick is. All that matters is the right thing at the right time. And, most of the time, less is more.”

Penrose provides an example: in 2016, he provided an effect for the premiere of the 2016 movie Star Trek Beyond, designing a device that made Idris Elba magically appear outside a cinema in Leicester Square. It was, he says, “nice enough.” That winter, he used the exact same illusion in the Theatre Royal Stratford East’s pantomime Sinbad the Sailor, making a statue come alive before the audience’s eyes. “The audience gasped and cried like I’d never seen before, and so did I,” he says.

When it comes to stage work, Penrose is particularly proud of two shows. The first is The Tiger Who Came To Tea, David Wood’s Olivier Award-nominated 2008 adaptation of Judith Kerr’s 1968 children’s story, which is rarely not being staged somewhere in the world. Penrose revisits it once or twice a year to train new casts in working his illusions. It is, he says, the most “artistically beautiful” show he has worked on.

The second is Penrose’s current project, Tall Stories’ The Canterville Ghost, which runs at Southwark Playhouse until early November. Partly that is because it is “the most magic I’ve ever put into a show,” Penrose explains. Partly because he has been involved in the creative process from the very beginning, when often he is parachuted in at the eleventh hour and asked to, ironically, perform miracles to make a show work. And partly, it is because of the show’s cast and creative team.

“It’s not just their skill level, it’s their attitude,” he says. “It’s the way they go about their work and include everyone. Some of the worst shows I’ve ever worked on have been the ones with the most money and the most tyrannical directors. Some of the most wonderful shows have been children’s made on a relative shoestring.”

ENDS

‘A Sense of Direction’ is written by Fergus Morgan.