Borges and I and The Psychic Psychologist: Oxfringe 2010 (From The Oxford Times)

Borges and I and The Psychic Psychologist: Oxfringe 2010

1:55pm Wednesday 7th April 2010 in

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Week 2 of Oxfringe took me northwards to the bijou Drama Studio of Cherwell School for an unusual and intriguing production called Borges and I, a remarkable fusion of drama, music and physical movement from Idle Motion Theatre Company. It’s inspired by the life and works of the Argentinian writer and bibliophile Jorge Borges, whose life had ironic poignancy in that just as he became director of The National Library of Argentina he became blind and was unable to read its treasures.

Juxtaposing this narrative with the story of a book club reading his work, the company use intriguing visual and aural images to bring alive both his experiences and those of the readers. The cast moved seamlessly from Borges’ dreamscape to the everyday lives and loves of the book group characters, who were sharply, and often hilariously, realized. Sometimes sad, often funny but always engrossing, this piece was a treat for eye, ear and mind.

Down to the Copa Bar next for something completely different (that is the beauty of the Oxfringe experience – variety!) namely Rob Bailey the ‘Psychic’ Psychologist (right). His is a very funny show with some baffling illusions that Bailey frankly and honestly proclaims throughout are not magic or psychic but feats of misdirection and basic psychology. Informative and very funny his presentation is very engaging but I don’t continued to be mystified over how he pulled off some of the illusions – even though I was one of the audience members brought up on stage to be part of one of them. I would normally shy away from this type of attention but the affable Dr Bailey quickly put me at ease – he is after all a trained psychologist. This scientific training allied to his natural abilities as a comic make for a very unusual show, and even though I could not work out how he did the actual tricks I came away feeling that I had learned something.