The Stage

Derren Brown Live

Published Monday 14 June 2004 at 16:00 by Chris Bartlett

Derren Brown knows how to provoke a response. But besides grabbing headlines with his Channel 4 specials, the psychological magician’s greatest feat has been reinventing the TV event. That and restoring credibility to a much-maligned art form.

His West End debut, ostensibly a rerun of the show he toured last year but looking none the worse for it, builds on both these achievements - with the inclusiveness of theatre adding an even greater sense of occasion.

But while on TV Brown downplays his role in proceedings - which may be a sleight of hand in itself - here his personality is to the fore, helped by a witty script and some unobtrusive direction. And what comes across strongest, aside from the unfailingly impressive feats of memory and suggestion, is a wryly self-aware sense of humour. Here he knocks the ponderous, self-aggrandising stunts of closest peer David Blaine’s into a cocked hat.

Only when the overt use of hypnotism in one trick, provoking a collective, disapproving intake of breath, renders two randomly selected audience members unwitting accomplices does his style rankle.

But then he is also not adverse to using a spot of trad magic’s showmanship to get us back onside, even when the parlour game frivolity of Part I is replaced by a darker but no less playful tone in Part II. And when Brown appeals for audiences and reviewers not to reveal its contents - although anyone who saw his live C4 seance will know what to expect - you get the feeling his wishes will be respected. After all, Brown does have an unswerving ability to get people to do what he wants.