Review: Haunted at Brass Monkey Hotel
Haunted at Downstairs Williams Room at Brass Monkey Hotel
Sunday, February 9, 2025
On the spookier side of the Fringe World Perth offerings this year, Haunted offered a foray into the world of spirits and paranormal activity with Scottish storyteller and magician Kevin Kopfstein. Billed as an exploration of paranormal storytelling, using haunted, cursed, and macabre objects collected by Kopfstein over 30 years, Haunted also combined elements of parlour magic and illusion.
Kopfstein’s mastery of storytelling was engaging from the start of the show. Recounting chilling stories of vampires and folklore, the show was strongest in moments of candid storytelling, without the addition of magical elements. The challenging interplay between magic and storytelling, dependent on the selling of magical props as being ‘authentic,’ was strained throughout the show. Kopfstein’s engaging tales, finding authenticity in their connection to ‘real’ objects, were undermined instantly by such ‘antique’ objects being clearly props. These included ‘Victorian’ letters printed on modern shiny-laminate materials, such as those out of children’s books, and 1950s clown posters on modern, shiny posters, with secret murderous messages typed in a Comic Sans-derivative font.
Even audience members determined to suspend disbelief and accept the show at its face struggled with the unspoken group consensus that, being forged objects, the stories were then also at least partially fabricated. This made the stories come across as over-romanticised and clichéd 5-10 minute setups for a minor moment of magical payoff that was altogether anticipated anyway—a fact clearly observed in audiences’ increasingly nonchalant reactions to the tricks.
To clarify, Kopfstein’s performance of magic was novel and well-suited to the theme of the show, but on several occasions, with one hand clearly in their trousers, or, in one instance, with a vice grip on something over their trousers that bulged in their pocket, the effect and veracity of tricks were lost.
It was also, unfortunately, though not the fault of Kopfstein, that the venue was ill-suited for the full atmospheric effect of the show. For example, a particularly spooky moment of the show was soundtracked by the bleeding tones of a Backstreet Boys hit. There is no doubt that Kopfstein is a master of storytelling. Had the objects, billed as real antiques, held the same ring of authenticity, and the magic been better integrated and disguised, the show would have been exceptional.
BEC WELDON