THE GREAT NICOLA

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22636, 15 February 1939, Page 8

THE GREAT NICOLA

'BAFFLING FEATS OF MAGIC

Seeing a show which completely surpassed the highest expectations, the audiences at the Theatre Royal, these last two nights - have been amazed and baffled, and delighted to be baffled, by the entertainment provided by Nicola, the famous magician. The performance opened with a series of surprises and apparently irnpossible illusions which followed one another with breathtaking rapidity, so skilfully performed that a second or two after the curtain had gone up it became apparent to the more sceptical that it was futile to entertain the idea of detecting any trickery or trying to imagine how the illusions were contrived. The first was the stretching of the arms and legs of a young girl, who was placed on a rack, to an extent that would have been most convincingly alarming were it not for the completely composed demeanour of the girl. Nicola went on to present a series of completely bewildering tricks, every one more surprising than the last. Then, when .he became a Hindu fakir, he opened with the famous basket trick. A girl is placed in a basket; knives are thrust through it from all directions, but she emerges unhurt. But this scene closes with an even more remarkable illusion. A princess, lying on a table, is covered with a cloth. At his command she rises into the air and remains suspended. . Nicola is next on the stage of his own theatre. He performs one baffling illusion after another in the most easy and finished manner. He concludes this scene with the gaolbreaking mystery, a stage reproduction of the manner in which he has startled police and scientists throughout the world.

The second act opens with amazing feats of thought-reading by Lucille Roberts. The problem of the return of spirits to earth is dealt with by Nicola with as much skill as ever. He then turns to one of the tricks which goes completely beyond the range of imagined, the guilloting off of the head and legs of a woman, leaving the trunk to vanish completely. The last trick that Nicola performs is the strangest of all. It was originated by his father, and it has left audiences throughout the world in a state of utter astonishment. A young girl is locked into a trunk, bound securely with ropes. At one minute she is there,, and Nicola is on the stage. A second later she is standing on the stage and the trunk is opened to reveal Nicola.