Derren Brown: Infamous

How do you write about a show in which you are implored not to reveal anything? Well it’s both difficult and easy. Derren Brown has been amazing us for some time now with his very own super-cool brand of magic and mind tricks. The neo-gothic presentation has created an air of sinister disquiet for him for some time and his cooler than cool, histrionic-free presentation style breeds an air of reverence. On TV it’s chilling but live something else happens, or at least in this tour of his show Infamous.

Here he opens with an attitude of disarming self-deprecation. Like much of the rest of his show, I suspect it’s a trick. In fact he’s fast to tell us that this is all trickery, even cheating. What this does is make us like the man even more, he has an unassuming charm that is quite irresistible, and whether this too is part of the act or the reality is immaterial. Like him you must – and thus he lures you into his web of magical intrigue.

At times he even claims that he will show you how he does what he does, but of course he does not, again sucking you deeper in. He uses vulnerability to heighten your empathy, makes simple jokes that make him seem even more human and all the time tells us that it’s all a trick, a magical conceit and the simple training of his brain.

What he does not claim at any time is that he is a genius – but he clearly is, the show is genius, the production values are breathtaking and he is simply brilliant throughout – magic!

Theatre Royal Brighton, 11 February 2014

Rating: