By: James Banyard
Derren Brown, master mentalist, slippery soothsayer and all-round nice guy, is back with Only Human, a chunky 2-hour-40-minute long show that will wow you, puzzle you, and leave you arguing about how he does it. But, how to write about him?
On this tour, Brown has asked audiences to keep the show secret, and on press night with journalists and bloggers sprinkled through the stalls, he specifically tells us not to reveal what he’s doing.
What I can say is this: Brown is not just a performer. He’s a philosopher (actually, he studied Law and German at Bristol, but the mind works in mysterious ways). This time, he’s probing one of the fundamentals of A-level philosophy: how free are your choices? Through a set of deft set pieces, part Edwardian parlour game, part immersive psy-op, part motivational speech, he pushes us to confront our answers to that.
Paranoia starts early. Before the show, a spooky trailer on the TRP website asks whether you really make free choices, or whether life is making choices for you. In the foyer, queuing for a drink, you wonder: are you being watched? Maybe. When you take your seats, there are props waiting. Anyone who’s seen Brown on TV knows audience participation is guaranteed. Individuals are picked out at random, perhaps. Will they sit, stand, sleep on queue? Nouns are collected on coloured slips of paper. The mood in the Lyric is highly attentive. Everything Brown says and does feels significant. He’s antsy about his head-mic which is improperly attached. Coincidence? Who knows.
The show is a grand tour through the major landmarks of divination: the sceptic will immediately form theories (cold reading? stooges?), while the true believer will fall under his spell.
The big question, apart from free will, is whether Brown is still as good as he used to be. This reviewer felt parts of the show were rushed. His loose tongue lost some in the audience; a few around me weren’t quite following. But that’s being picky. Arrive prepared to be astonished. Brown remains the master of mind control and psychological illusion, and sits apart from his peers in a group of one.
That’s right, there is only one Derren Brown. Come with relaxed shoulders and an open mind, all the better for him to read it.