DAVID KWONG THE ENIGMATIST at the Rep Theater Review

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents "The Enigmatist”, March 7 - April 5, 2026 
Pictured L to R: David Kwong. Photo credit: Jon Gitchoff. Courtesy of the Repertory Theater of St. Louis

– By Cate Marquis –

The Repertory Theater of St. Louis’s newest offering in their black box style Studio theater space, is a one-man interactive show featuring magician and crossword puzzle-maker David Kwong. But the smart, thoroughly delightful “David Kwong The Enigmatist: Magic and Puzzles” is no mere magic show but a delightfully immersive experience in puzzle-solving and puzzle creation with a dash of magic, all delivered by a charming, funny performer, David Kwong, who is not only a magician but a creator of crossword puzzles for the New York Times. If you count yourself a crossword or Scrabble fan, or a fan of magic, this fun show is something not to miss.

This is the second audience-participation show that the Rep has staged in the lower-level Studio space. I missed the first one, “Mrs. Krishnan’s Party,” unfortunately, but I can say this one delivered more than expected and was an enjoyable, very entertaining, and immersive evening.

Kwong’s likable persona, sense of fun and, importantly, his respect for the audience’s intelligence were the keys to this entertaining performance.Yes, personable, funny David Kwong does start with a few card magic tricks and some mentalist magic, but he quickly drew in even the most skeptical audience members to participate in the fun, with his charming, warm persona and his sharp-witted presentation is laced with biographical details delivered with a warm, almost self-deprecating wit. Kwong told the audience his parents are “smart – really smart,” a pair of retired college professors, but Kwong, a Harvard grad, is pretty smart himself. Watching him solve complicated puzzles at lightening speed is great fun, and even more so when the audience gets in on the puzzle-solving action.

As David Kwong tells the audience, he was one of those kids who fell in love with magic, not something he or his parents, professors of history and biochemistry, anticipated. But an encounter with a magician, when he and his father visited a pumpkin patch, impressed him, because the magician did a trick that fooled his father, the brilliant scientist. Young David was hooked.

While Kwong starts with a few card tricks and some “mentalist” tricks, he reminds us that it magic is a trick. The magic was enjoyable, but the real fun starts with the puzzles. Even before the show, the audience was offered the chance to solve some puzzles, with several word puzzles with visual clues set up throughout the lobby. Kwong talked about those and presented us with more similar puzzles and clues, using a white board and other visual aids, during the first half of the show, drawing the audience in to help solve them. More than one audience member’s curiosity was piqued by this experience, and no doubt rushed out to the lobby at intermission to solve the ones out there.

Kwong also threw in some fascinating facts about creating secret codes, and offered demonstrations of how to create them and breaking them. The puzzles were clever enough to challenge, without being too difficult to solve in limited time.

After intermission, more kinds of puzzles were offered up for Kwong and the audience to solve. Crossword puzzles are part of Kwong’s life, as crossword puzzle creator for the New York Times, and he demonstrated his word and puzzle-making skills in building a giant crossword puzzle with audience input and a few St. Louis-related clues. He also demonstrated his word prowess with a kind of beat-the-clock Scrabble bit that aimed to use the full eight tiles drawn randomly for his virtual tray, which was a real hoot. The solutions to some magic tricks that were started in the first half of the show were revealed near the show’s end, with those reveals greeted by gasps of surprise and with applause.

The evening was thoroughly enjoyable, both because of David Kwong’s personal charm and the chance to, as a group, participate in some fun “brainiac” puzzle-solving and puzzle building. If you like either puzzles or magic, this one show you don’t want to miss.

The Rep’s “David Kwong The Enigmatist” is on stage in the studio space at the Loretto Hilton Theater in Webster Groves through Apr. 5, 2026.

© Cate Marquis