Derren Brown’s Unbelievable is just that, as new magicians take on his skills and leave audience speechless

THERE’S a stark difference between who we are and how we present ourselves to others.

That’s the message of Derren Brown’s latest West End production, Unbelievable. A show that really does what it claims.

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Its six actors, who all spend the majority of the show on stage together, leave the enraptured audience stunned by tricks that defy any attempt at explanation. That is, unless we’re handed the key to certain secrets hidden by magicians for centuries.

The show, co-written by famed mentalist Brown, doesn’t actually feature the illusionist himself. Instead, he’s trained actors to perform mind-bending tricks.

Simon Lipkin leads the company, embodying a distinctly Brown performance style – confident booming voice, sprightly stage presence and the impression he’s in on the joke with the audience – all accompanied by his incredibly powerful singing voice.

Brown himself explains: “We’ve taught them the stuff we know, but we can’t do what they can. This has been the most liberating and exciting aspect of making this show: seeing something come into being that we could never perform ourselves.”

Each of the six other cast members – Laura Andresen Guimarães, Alexander Bean, Hannah Price, Izalni Batista Nascimento Junior and Samuel Creasey – each bring their musical talents, and personalities, to the stage.

Guimarães and Price play the saxophone, while Junior takes to the trumpet and Bean keeps to the beat with the drums. Creasey is hilarious, offering incredible improv comedy to the audience whenever he bursts onto the stage.

He can elicit a laugh from even the most foul-tempered audience member with only a smile and is undoubtedly the stand-out star of the show.

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Brown says: “We wrote the show and re-wrote it again and again as we got to know the cast better, shaping it to fit their personalities.” It’s easy to see why after watching what Creasey was able to deliver outside of the constraints of a script.

The performance was not without its hiccups, with even Brown asking the audience to “spare us” where mistakes happen. During one act, called Musical Telepathy, a dozen audience members with musical ability are called to the stage.

They’re asked to think of a song and Price plays it on the piano. By the end of the bit the entire band are on stage with Price following her lead as she “channels” the audience members standing with a hand on her shoulder.

It’s a truly fascinating insight into how easily led we all are.

Yet, as the piece comes to a triumphant end, and all hands have been removed from Price’s shoulder to acknowledge the song they were thinking of has been played, one hand remains.

Price exclaims victoriously: “It was near enough.”

It’s almost this imperfection that makes the show all the stronger – but the cynic in me might hope they’d get it spot on to properly illicit marvel.

Unbelievable

Criterion Theatre, London

★★★★

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