Review: Derren Brown: Showman at The Lyceum, Sheffield

It’s a unique challenge, reviewing a show about which you’re not allowed to mention anything that happened.

“For this particular show,” instructed the press release before opening night, “Derren Brown kindly requests all Press do not give away the content of the show in their reviews.

“The mystery of the production,” it added tantalisingly, “is part of its unique charm.”

So, spoiler alert: there can be no spoilers.

Derren Brown: Showman is at The Lyceum, Sheffield, until Saturday

Of course if you’ve seen Derren Brown on TV before, and chances are you have in the years since he made his small screen debut with the show Mind Control in 2000, you’ll have an idea what to expect.

Yes there are traditional type tricks – cards and dice, coins and numbers. There’s audience participation, lots of it. There’s dry ice and drama. So far so magic.

But it’s all so much more captivating and jaw-dropping than that.

Derren mixes storytelling in with the mentalism and mind control, and much of the show is about memories.

In his instantly recognisable, distinctive voice, he talks about connections, sentimentality, emotions and relationships we all share. Feelings that remind us that behind the facade we all harbour the same hopes and insecurities.

It lends a real authenticity to a show built on sleight of hand, psychology and subterfuge. It’s thought-provoking as well as baffling and bewildering.

The magic happens against the backdrop of a gothic set with church-like arches and a painted cherubic frieze. Props are old-fashioned and a little creepy. It’s eerie, unsettling – just like the show.

It’s hard to decide what’s deliberate and what’s not, whether things happen as a distraction or as suggestion – or are just incidental moments of no import.

“We make a play of protecting our methods not because they are of great value,” says Derren in the programme notes to accompany his show, “but because the revelation of their dullness would expose us as pantomiming fools.”

Even that’s hard to believe. Surely the explanation must be as shocking and explosive as the experience itself.

Everyone is on the edge of their seats, trying to be the one to work it out. The audience hangs on his every quietly-entrancing word. His understated, controlled, hypnotic language keeps us in the palm of his hand.

It’s not just mind-bending – it’s mind-blowing. To believe it? Well you’ll just have to go and see it.

Derren Brown: Showman is at The Lyceum, Sheffield, until Saturday.