The Alchemystorium (Tour – Salford)

Venue: The Lowry
Where: Salford

The Alchemystorium is a highly unusual café, serving romance, the supernatural and magic along with your cappuccino. Unspoken physical comedy, puppetry and superb acting tells the tale of a café which manages to match up their patrons with their ideal partners using puppets, a camera and a little bit of magic. 

All, however, goes awry when two of the threesome fall in love, leaving a lonesome girl pining for her mystery man.  As the partnership falls apart, she heads off to find her love again.

The laughs are plenty and the pace is fast. At no point do you get lost and the lack of spoken word adds to the charm and draws you in. Special mention must be made of the music and choreography – perfectly chosen and synchronised with the eccentric action on stage, I found myself enjoying the music almost as much as the performance.

So, if you need a tall, skinny latte and to be matched up with your future lover, or are just in the mood for a good laugh and to see some inventive and utterly creative theatre, try The Alchemystorium Café – you’ll never look at Starbucks in quite the same way.

–  Geoff Hodge