Credit: Pamela Raith Photography
Derren Brown returns to Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre with Only Human, a brand-new live show promising mind-reading, psychological illusion and theatrical storytelling.
Derren Brown is heading back to Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre this July with his brand-new live show, Only Human — and frankly, if anyone can make a night at the theatre feel like your brain has been taken out, given a polish, and popped back in the wrong way round, it is probably him.
The multi award-winning master of psychological illusion and mind control returns to the Lyceum from Tuesday 14 to Saturday 18 July, bringing with him a show that promises mind-reading, storytelling, unsettling theatricality and the sort of “how on earth did he do that?” moments that follow you all the way home.
Only Human is still very much under wraps, which is exactly how a Derren Brown show tends to like it. You are not meant to know too much going in. Half the thrill is sitting there with your arms folded, quietly thinking, “Well, he won’t get me,” approximately three minutes before he very much does.
This new production explores what it means to be human, looking at perception, belief and the fragile line between reality and illusion. In other words, expect a show that does not just ask you to watch, but asks you to question what you are watching.
That is where Derren Brown’s live work has always been so clever. It is not just tricks. It is not just spectacle. It is theatre with a mischievous glint in its eye. One minute you are laughing, the next you are wondering whether your entire personality is just a few badly stacked assumptions in a trench coat.
Smart, unsettling and wildly entertaining, Only Human sounds like one for audiences who like their theatre with a bit of danger to it. Not danger as in “someone has brought a chainsaw on stage”, but danger as in “I may leave this building no longer trusting my own thoughts.” Which, depending on your week, might actually be quite refreshing.
So, should you see Derren Brown’s Only Human at Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre this July?
If you enjoy psychological illusion, mind-reading, theatrical storytelling, and shows that leave you talking about them long after the curtain comes down, then yes. This has all the makings of one of Sheffield’s most intriguing theatre events of the summer.
Some theatre nights entertain you. Some impress you. Some make you clap politely and then immediately think about the bus home.
This one might just mess with your head — in the best possible way.
Derren Brown: Only Human comes to the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield from Tuesday 14 to Saturday 18 July. Tickets can be booked through the Box Office in person, by phone on 0114 249 6000, or at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
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