"I've Never Seen Anything Like This Before!": Inside Rehearsals for Derren Brown's Unique New Show UNBELIEVABLE

“Everyone you meet is performing a kind of magic trick - Presenting the parts of themselves they want you to see, their ‘effect’ - And hiding parts they don’t, their ‘method’”

Recently, BroadwayWorld UK had the chance to attend an invited rehearsal of magician Derren Brown’s newest show, Unbelievable. The show, created by longtime collaborators Derren Brown, Andy Nyman and Andrew O’Connor brings magic to life with a cast of actors and musicians, many of whom are new to the world of magic! 

After decades of appearing on stage solo, this will be the first-ever time that one of Derren's shows will be performed by a cast rather than himself.

After being treated to a scene from the show, we were given the opportunity to have a group Q&A with Derren Brown, Andy Nyman, and Andrew O’Connor about what it has been like to create a show that captures “an egoless magic” and lets the actors speak directly to the audience. 

When asked about working with the cast, Derren Brown stated “Being non-magicians . . . They've been able to work with changes and take notes, and bring a whole set of disciplines to it that you probably wouldn't get with a handful of magicians who would have their act and their way of doing something. So there's been a lot more finding and revising than we expected. No one's done anything quite this way before.”

In learning how to adapt with Derren as a member of the creative team and not the sole performer, Andy made an interesting comparison - “I compare it to the way an Ouija board works. It's a thing called ideomotor syndrome. On an Ouija board, everyone's got their hands on the glass, and the thing is moving of its own volition. It doesn't matter if there's two of you, five of you - you know that you are not pushing it and yet that thing is moving on its own accord because you are pushing it and you're unaware of it. And that, to me, is when a collaboration really works. At its best, the thing takes on a life and an energy of its own that is greater than you could create on your own.”

After watching the cast perform a scene from the show, we spoke to several members of the cast - Simon Lipkin, Emily Redlaff, and Alexander Bean - about their experiences so far with Unbelievable and the escapism of magic. 

So why did you want to get involved with this show? What drew you to this? 

Simon: I have known Andy [Nyman] a very long time, and Andrew and Derren a little. And Andy called me and said, “We've been working on this thing. Will you read it and maybe see what you think about doing it?” I’m an actor, first and foremost, but I’m also a magician, and I've done that a long time. And I fell in love - it's literally my dream job. And so I got on board with it and said, “Who else is doing it?” And they said, “We're going to use a bunch of brilliant musicians and actors who aren't necessarily magicians, but we're going to train them up and teach them everything that we know, everything Derren knows.” And so here we are!

They found nine other incredible people who play every instrument under the sun. That is genuinely the best magic trick in the show! I know how to do a lot of magic tricks, but the comprehension of seeing people play five instruments, one after the other, and make it look like it's not a problem, I don't know how that works. Only thing in the show that I don't know how that works.

Alexander: There's not many opportunities in a person's career to work with someone that is very much at the top of their field as is Derren Brown. So when an opportunity like that presents itself, it's something that you have to take! Fantastic to work with and for, as are Andy and Andrew, respectively. So that was a big factor for myself.

Emily: Having a show that combines so many different elements is so exciting. I've never seen anything like this before. The whole concept of it's so different. It's just incredibly exciting. So something that I definitely didn’t want to pass up!

Simon: All we ever want, as an audience member, is to feel something. Whether that be you're going to see something intense and dramatic, or going to see a light fluffy musical, or in this case, going to see a magic show. Something like this has never been done before. This is new. And even though we haven't been in front of an audience yet, you can't even begin to explain the amount of wonder, and disbelief, and deep feelings, and laughter. So you just hope that they leave feeling like maybe magic is just a little bit more real, because it's quite good right now to feel like that. Magic is pure escapism. We really hope that they just feel wonder.

Emily: Leaving the show, childlike energy again . . . It's so easy to get caught up in everything in the world now, but to get to go to the theatre and experience something that you have no idea how it's happening, it's so exciting. It's so different seeing it live. So just leaving the audience with that kind of experience, that's the fun part. 

Alexander: As long as it's enjoyed and they take what they need to take away from it. There's so many facets to the show that there will be something that resonates with everyone. So as long as it lands in that respect, I couldn't be happier. 

We also talked with Derren, Andy, and Andrew about what they hope audiences take away from Unbelievable and what makes it such a unique magic show. 

What do you hope audiences take away from this show? 

Andy: Well, we always have high aspirations when we create anything. We want them to go away, having had, no pun intended, an unbelievable experience, where they see some truly fantastic magic, but within a way that they've never really experienced magic before. And there's an underlying theme that, like all the underlying themes we explore, is something that we all like and believe. And we would love to be able to just lace that into the show in a way that it just seeps into people, and they go away with that. I'm not gonna tell you what that is yet, but that's certainly what our aspirations are.

Derren: We try and come up with something that you wouldn't get from any other show anywhere. I think that's important. It's a way of doing magic that’s never been done before. Magic shows have just been the same sort of thing for a couple of centuries, so this is a very different way of doing it. A genuinely unique experience. More than just, “Oh, how do they do that?” I think you have to take away something that changes you, gets under your skin a little bit in a good way. That would be nice.

Andrew: I would say that although it's not an interactive show. You're not amongst the magicians, they're not coming out amongst you. There is a feeling that a magic show done well uniquely involves the audience in a way that no other show can. You can tick the box to have the chance to take part in this show. So that feeling of at any point you might be on stage, taking part in this, having that experience, is a really key part of it. You want them to be excited and a little bit nervous! Laughing sometimes, scared sometimes, confused sometimes . . . It's a show that's totally about your audience. You could put on a play or a musical and it would work without an audience, but a magic show doesn't have that. We need an audience's response for the magic to even happen. 

Derren: Whilst that sounds like a tiny thing, to have a magic show that is about the audience is a massive shift because magic is only ever about the magician. So that in and of itself is a real change. We want to make it solely about giving them the experience and letting it be about what they go away with.

Andrew: And Derren’s been at the forefront of that; you really set the new template for that. So in the same way that a Derren Brown audience have an experience that's only about them, we'd very much like to replicate that with a broader range of magic. 

What have you yourselves taken away from creating this show? 

Andrew: The show got me through lockdown. It's gotten me back into magic, a lot of magic and all the research. But predominantly, pre-rehearsals, the thing for me has been having a reason for the three of us to be on Zoom or meet up. They’re two of my closest friends in the world. That's been a great joy for me, to get to create that stuff with you.

Derren: For me, the big thing is directing. I'm with the two guys that have directed me for many years, and that's been my own little private, weird journey to get my head around. So that's been fun and interesting. Also, because I'm a performer, I find it very interesting working with actors and people that don't have magic as part of their history. Going out as an actor and being yourself as opposed to being a character, that's interesting.

Talking directly to an audience, you can't really do that as an actor. And again, the show is about the audience. If you're doing a play and the play goes over people's heads, doesn't mean the play has failed. If you doing magic and people don't get it, then the magic has no value at all - It has failed. Your toolkit is the ongoing story that people are telling themselves, in the audience, as to what you're doing. That's new stuff if you're an actor. No matter how good an actor you are, it's probably not stuff that you've been told to lean into before. So all that I find really interesting. We're rehearsing it right now and I'm still in the process of finding that stuff out with the cast, it's amazing.

Andy: It's a joy to do. As Andrew said, we all love each other, we've worked together for over 20 years. One of the amazing things, for Derren coming to this side of the table, is realising that we don’t have any answers! [Laughs] We've directed so many of his shows, and what you do as a director is finding your way through it together, leading that search as opposed to just being the guiding light. We’re about to move on to the next stage when you’re at the theater, doing the tech, and start to create all of that. And then you start to see all the things that you thought would work that don't or the things you weren't sure about that suddenly blossom into life in a way you never expected. So the next part of the journey is coming, and then in front of an audience. It's a joy.

How would you describe the show in one word that isn't Unbelievable? 

Derren: Imminent. Because we don't know, yet, what the show will be. 

Andrew: As of today, the word for us would be terrifying.

Andy: I'm not terrified, no!

Andrew: I'm terrified! I'm terrified like a horror movie that you like, and you're terrified in a good way. The precipice of what's going to happen. I'm terrified in that sense.

Derren: We know it's going to be great. Because we've all been through this so many times, it will be great. But also, it's up to us to make it great. It's a strange, unnerving place to be, and we have every confidence it will be everything we want it to be, or something different and better than that! You don't know exactly what it's going to be, but it'll be good.

Andy: I think the reason I'm not terrified is because I believe in all of the material, but I am more acutely aware of the nightmare that is coming. Remind me of that when I'm doubled over and ashen.

Andrew: Of course, of course.

Andy: I'm just aware that that's what it is because that's what it always is. The three of us, we were here, long after rehearsals had finished, reworking, rewriting massive, drastic changes because we'd had a little run in front of a couple of new people who'd never seen anything. And the first time you see it through someone else's eyes, you suddenly see so much that isn't working.

Andrew: Because the show is a play, and a musical, and a magic show, and has special effects. It’s enormous! Most Derren Brown shows have one big set-piece routine, and this show is full of those big set-piece routines. And so that is the scale of it that's incredibly exciting slash terrifying. I love those books in theatre history where “We took musical out of town before and it wasn't working till we got to Philadelphia, and we had to rewrite it!” I love those stories. That's basically what we're going to live through. And that's what's exciting, terrifying, and amazing. 

Unbelievable is previewing at Colchester’s Mercury Theatre and Manchester’s Palace Theatre before it begins its run in London at the Criterion Theatre on 19 September.

Note: Derren Brown will not be appearing in Unbelievable.

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