Derren Brown: Only Human Live (touring) ★★★★

Multi-award-winning master of mind games, Derren Brown, returns to the stage with his latest brain-bending offering, Only Human Live.

The basic concept of the show revolves around the choices we make and if we are ever truly in control of them. A large portion of the conceit involves the work of Nostredame, a sixteenth-century philosopher and astrologer whose works pertain to predicting the future. Was there truth in it, and can we replicate it in this very theatre?

The answer appears to be yes.

As you’d expect, the show lives and dies on Derren Brown’s unrelenting showmanship. Although his approach is largely contemporary, he holds the stage like an old-school sideshow psychic of yesteryear. He’s warm, witty and likeable. It would be easy for a production that involves so much audience participation to feel confronting, leaving the audience squirming with awkwardness. This is never the case, as he creates a unique atmosphere of ease and safety.

It’s hard to talk too much about the true content of the show without spoiling it for future audiences, but needless to say, there are illusions, mind-reading and hypnotism galore. Everyone in the theatre is included and important to proceedings, whether passively or directly.

What sets Derren Brown apart is his ability to present seemingly unimportant information, almost matter-of-factly, only for you to later realise it was all cleverly placed for the big payoff. And there’s plenty of payoff in this production. It’s meticulously crafted and deftly delivered. Even the tiniest “mistakes” have purpose and meaning by the end.

Along with all the mind trickery we’ve come to expect from Derren, there’s some added spectacle that leaves the audiences gasping for more. Credit for this must go to the understated but wildly effective design choices from Simon Higlett (set), Charlie Morgan Jones (lighting), Simon Wainwright (video) and Beth Duke (sound). Their mood-building work could easily go unnoticed, but it’s essential to the piece and provides some key standout moments, especially in the show’s second act.

There are times the pace feels too drawn out, something that often goes with the territory of this kind of mentalism performance. But Derren always keeps the energy flowing, providing just enough changes in tempo to keep us begging for more.

Only Human Live is a strategically constructed tour-de-force that proves Derren Brown still has what it takes to command a room and baffle an audience.