Ishbel Cumming is a young actor on the rise. Barely graduated from the Guildford School of Acting, this daughter of Aberdeen booked her professional debut with Mischief Theatre, on the first tour of their smash-hit show ‘Magic Goes Wrong’ since restrictions began to lift last year. Understudying for not one, but four lead parts, Ishbel made time to speak with me over Zoom, despite being mid-recovery from a seasonal bug.
I began by asking her to tell me a little about her background as a performer…
“I’ve been acting since I was about 9 or 10,” she tells me, “It’s just always been a part of my life… I was quite a loud, confident child, so it was sort of the only route I was ever going to go down. I graduated from Guildford school of Acting, straight into a pandemic funnily enough!”
She carries on, “Just before the pandemic, I did actually audition for Magic Goes Wrong, the West End version, and I got really far but didn’t get it. When my agent rang to say, after lockdown, they wanted to see me for the tour version of it, I thought Oh god here we go again, can I take the heartbreak? but I landed it! It’s my first big professional gig, though I’ve done bits and bobs since graduating, and made my own work as well with friends and colleagues, but this is definitely the the biggest thing that has ever happened to me, and it has been an absolute dream. I’m having the best time.”
Ishbel explained that she’s understudy to not one, but four of the central cast, and can be asked to step into any of their shoes at the last minute, but when she’s not called upon to do so, she and the other understudies and swings, take small parts which nonetheless add depth to the show overall.
“The characters I understudy are all so different to each other, which adds to the comedy, because it’s like, Why are these characters in a situation together, they’re all so different?“
I then ask her to give a brief idea of the show itself, for anyone not already in the ‘Magic Goes Wrong’ loop…
“So, the whole idea is that there’s a character called Sophisticato, the compere for the, who has organized a very last-minute magic show, from the moment the audience walks in things are already going wrong, and there’s a bit of a pre-show where the understudies are coming around apologizing, and asking the audience if they’ve seen any doves, and such…so it’s all set-up from the get go.
The idea is that it’s a charity fundraiser for ‘Disasters in Magic’, because Sophisticato’s dad died when he was crushed by two tonnes of props that fell from an Attic. He’s arranged this fundraiser in memory of his father, and though he’s tried to get a load of magicians together, he’s only scraped together a few, and the ones he’s managed to get aren’t very good. That’s where the comedy stems from, but actually there’s some really, really amazing magic tricks in it. It might be disguised as a big failure, but it’s spectacular. We have a magic supervisor, Ben Hart, who’s a genius, and who taught us everything we know. All the different characters bring a different magic style, and each goes desperately wrong, but in the end, though I’m giving no spoilers, there’s a very lovely ending, with a super nice message.”
I ask if she’s enjoying the show, and the tour…
“I only have 2 months left,” she says, “it’s so sad! I’m having the best time. This cast is amazing, everyone is so brilliant!” She tells me that only a little while earlier one of the understudies was informed they were on that very night. “Everyone is so brave, and talented,” Ishbel carries on, “ Just hearing so many audiences, up and down the country laughing because of us is the most amazing feeling, and it never gets boring. The show is different all the time because we bring audience members up on stage, and so the show will take a different route based on what they’re giving us; it keeps it fresh.”
Ishbel is clearly having a great time on the road, “I’m seeing so much of the UK, we’re in Chester at the moment which is stunning…oh my goodness I could happily live here. We were in Hull last week where I could also very happily live: it’s a very cool place. I’m just having the best time, we all are. I know two months sounds like a long time, but this tour has gone so quickly that I know it’s just going to go like that! I’m savouring every moment.”
I express my admiration for understudies, and swings who have long been the unsung heroes of theatre across the country, and never more so than during these days of Covid-induced absences. It’s a tough gig I say…
“Thank you very much” she says, “I appreciate that a lot: yes, it is. It is a lot! Sometimes I’ve thought, Oh my goodness all of this is never going to go into my head! I’ll take you on a little story time…over Christmas we had seven weeks off from this tour, because all the pantos were taking over theatres. Well, pandemonium struck in the West-End version of ‘Magic Goes Wrong,’ and a couple of people went down because of Covid. I got a call asking me to come down, and asking if I could learn two more parts! Well, I was on within 5 days, covering a character called Peg, which is only in the West End version, which is a little more fleshed out with female roles at the moment. It’s just been a crazy time for understudies. You’re seeing musicals calling people back that I haven’t worked there for 5 years: it’s amazing, isn’t it?
“Going into the West End,” she continues, “over Christmas, and getting to meet Henry Lewis, and Jonathan Sayer was really cool. They’re such normal people, but they’re celebrities in our eyes. To go and work alongside them was really surreal, because they started this empire (alongside Henry Shields).”
I point out that one of things I’ve always appreciated about Mischief is the regular re-use of actors to populate their West-End, and touring productions, almost interchangeably.
Ishbel very much agrees, “it helps save people from burning out,” she thinks, “because it’s on all the time! I believe Henry Shield himself had to go and play his old role in ‘The Play that Goes Wrong,’ and hadn’t touched it in 5 years! We really are living in the most exciting, times…wild stuff is happening with swings, covers and old cast members.”
Ishbel praises the increasingly popular Twitter account @WestEndCovers, which daily highlights the brave actors stepping in at short notice to keep the theatres open.
“Whoever runs that account,” she says, is like Banksy: we’re all trying to find out who they are, cause they’re just the unsung heroes, so a shout out to them…we love them. I love reading a good review that says an understudy was on, and you wouldn’t have known, I’m just like “yes!” because they probably had an hour or two rehearsal that day, and have done it a handful of times so it’s really, really impressive stuff.
It’s important that you sort of step back and allow yourself to be realise you’re doing an important job as an understudy.”
I suggest that when she inevitably books a role in a principal, it’ll seem like an admin-free dream…
“I’m looking forward to that! I’m looking forward to just one role. Even at drama school I played about seven roles in each show: I was called the multi-role Queen at drama school because I would fill all sort of bit parts, and have about 20 million quick changes per show, so I’m kind of used it but when I do actually eventually land a single role, it’ll be a quite a new feeling.”
I move onto asking Ishbel who she thinks ‘Magic Goes Wrong’ is for?…
“This is such a classic answer, but I really think everyone. Well as long as you’re about above the age of 12.”
She goes onto share info on some scenes in the show which, whilst entirely within the slapstick, good humoured tradition of Mischief Theatre, might prove a little much for little ones.
“You know,” Ishbel continues, “Some shows are about how horrible humans are, and the awful things we can do to each other. When you leave ‘Magic Goes Wrong,’ you just go away having had a good time. It’s just to make you laugh, it’s purely entertaining. It’s such a family show. Everyone I know who’s been, and haven’t seen a ‘Goes Wrong’ production before have been so pleasantly surprised, even if they thought comedy wasn’t really their thing.”
I point out the old truth of acting, which is it’s one thing to learn to do a thing well, it’s quite another level of challenge to do that thing badly, and convincingly, on demand.
“Our magic supervisor actually did say to us okay, you’ve got the magic down guys, but now you need to make it look bad, it’s too smooth now. There are just so many skilled performances throughout, and everyone in this cast is just so naturally funny, and the timing is spot on. It’s an absolute barrel of laughs, and I love them so much.”
I ask if this is the sort of job Ishbel had hoped for back in her college days…
“Yeah definitely!” she says, “I think if I told myself, “Buckle up you’re going on the road for a year and you’ll know everyone’s part”, I don’t think I would have been surprised. I’d have though, well isn’t that what I do best? But, honestly to work with Mischief is a total dream, and also there was a very bleak time during the pandemic where I just thought, Is this ever gonna work for me? So, to get a year’s contract with the biggest comedy company in the UK, arguably in the, I would definitely have though it was the dream job. Comedy lessons in drama school were my highlight, I’d have been delighted to know I’d be doing this tour.”
On that note, I ask what she might be going onto when the tour comes to a finish…
“I have a dream job, and I don’t want to talk it into existence, so I won’t say anything more than that. I have learned that patience is a virtue, you know, I got that setback where I didn’t get ‘Magic Goes Wrong,’ the first time, and then we had a year and a half of nothing. You just have to trust that the right thing comes along. However, when the tour ends, I’m also just going home! What I’ve learned from this job and what it’s taught me about myself and…how I think it can be scary sometimes but I can go on, and I can do it, and I can get through it. I’m going to take that with me into casting rooms from now. I’ll have that confidence in myself and, hopefully that will open more doors. That’s the exciting thing, you just don’t know what’s next: maybe nothing’s next, so what are you gonna do then?”
I can’t resist becoming conversational at this point, and ask if Ishbel has heard of the podcast, ‘Dead Eyes,’ actor Connor Ratliff’s now 30-episode long quest to discover why he was fired from a small part in Tom Hank’s 2001 HBO spectacular, ‘Band of Brothers’. At the end of episode 29, we discover that Tom has actually e-mailed to ask if he can appear on the podcast, and you can guess what happens in a truly amazing episode 30. I suspect Ishbel will give that splendid podcast a listen, and you dear reader would be well advised to do likewise. However, back to Ishbell Cumming and ‘Magic Goes Wrong.’
I ask if she has any dream roles…
“I have two dream roles Hedda Gabler, and Lady Macbeth, which I will strive towards. I know life is prone to taking funny directions, so you never know…they might not ever stage a performance when I’m suitable for it, but that that would be the dream, definitely.”
I finish by asking how it feels for Ishbel to tour back over the border to the land of her birth, and if that feels different in any way…
“It’s wonderful. Scottish audiences are so fun, and up for a good time, and also my family can all come to watch when we’re in Scotland, which is joyous, because I forced them to watch all my performances which I wrote, directed, and starred in as a child, so now they’re actually seeing me get paid to do it…it feels like things have come full circle. It’s really fulfilling to see family in the audience, and just makes it so special and surreal, like wow I’ve actually made this work!
There’s been some convincing along the way, and you know the classic, “well, maybe you should be a drama teacher,” and well, it’s not so much proving them wrong as such, but saying, “you know, this this is my career, and this is what I always wanted to do.”
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Great interview – the understudies are an amazing part, living on the edge, ready at a moment’s notice so the show can go on. My theatre experience is decades ago, but you remember SO much!
Without question, in some ways the pandemic which has had so few bright sides to look upon, has at least brought the often overlooked understudies far more public appreciation.