BAFFLED!

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 132, 25 August 1927, Page 17

BAFFLED!

MAGIC AND MYSTERY CARTER THE GREAT’S ILLUSIONS A bafflecj audience left J-lis Majesty's Theatre last evening. It had watched a woman being sawn in half with a most businesslike crosscut saw, a horse disappear into sp.3.ee and a hundred other examples of mystery and magic. Carter the Great has everyone thinking hard. Could they have seen into his queer boxes and cabinets the mysteries might have been divulged, but as that is not allowed by any magician the audience went home completely puzzled. There is an everlasting lure about dealers in mystery and magic. Anything which savours of the supernatural finds a ready response from theatre patrons. Though they know it in their minds that the whole business is an illusion, in the words of a popular ragtime melody, “They love it, that’s all.” In the magic business Mr. Carter has few if any equals, and the fact that ho can entertain an audience for a whole evening is proof of his remarkable ability. He performs some already well-known illusions with a skill which is delightful to watch, but many new examples of magic are included in his extensive repertoire. Mr. Carter’s most amazing' thrill is sawing through a woman. After hypnotising Miss Ethel Wayne he places her in two boxes with her head protruding from one end and her feet from the other. After sawing through the boxes (or at least part of them) and to all intents and purposes through Aliss Wayne’s body, the receptacles are moved to either side of the stage. However, when the boxes are placed together again Miss Wayne assumes her natural proportions. The only outward sign of her ordeal was an expression of astonishment. The same little lady was the central figure in another weird illusion, “Cheating the Gallows,’’ which is much- too involved to attempt an explanation. The “torture cell of spikes’' is another queer problem. Hocked in a box a young woman seems to be impaled on 72 steel spikes. Whether she is or whether she isn’t is of no coiir sequence—Mr. Carter weaves such a spell that he makes one believe that she has been rather severely treated, only to come out of the pell smiling and unhurt. The magician also shows that the human form can be stretched to great and still greater lengths. By attaching one his assistants to a stage property he pulls her legs and arms and head into the most extraordinary positions. Mr. Carter's bouquet of mysteries is weird and wonderful. He has improved the “inexhaustible bottle” trick and makes it produce anything from champagne to water or guineapigs. Then with a few cabalistic signs he turns a guinea-pig into a bouquet of spring flowers and proceeds to net doves from the ether. “{Shooting through a woman” is an excellent piece of work and has all the young magicians working overtime. "The Bewitched Hat” is amusing and the “Astral Hand” is positively creepy. But there are dozens of other mysteries on the programme, all guaranteed to keep you awake o’nights if you worry over them. Don’t tell Miss Evelyn Maxwell anything about your past life. She reads your thoughts as easily qs a book. Last evening members of the audience wrote their questions on pieces of paper, which they kept in their possession, but Miss Maxwell, though blindTotded on the stage, was able to give the answers and the names of the questioners. She has made a study of mental telepathy and is almost as provoking and baffling as Carter the Great. Those who are fond of magic and mystery will enjoy the programme at His Majesty’s Theatre. Those who don’t will have their thrills—whether they like it or not. The season will last for a week.