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Derren Brown Is Something Wicked at Cambridge

Television magician Derren Brown (pictured) will return to the West End when he brings his new stage show, Something Wicked This Way Comes to the Cambridge Theatre for a limited season from 31 May to 18 June 2005.

As with last summer’s Derren Brown Live, which had an extended stint at the Palace Theatre (See News, 14 Apr 2004), the new show’s London engagement follows an extensive, two-month UK-wide tour, which kicked off on 20 March 2005 and which will take in 45 different venues by the time it concludes in Edinburgh on 28 May.

Trained as a lawyer, Brown started his performing career in cafes and bars. His big break came in 1999 when Channel 4 asked him to put a show together for television. His hit Mind Control has since had several series.

In October 2003, Brown provoked international outcry when he staged a game of Russian roulette on live television. The one-off programme was watched by over 3.3 million people in the UK. His new series of Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind begins on Channel 4 this Friday, 15 April 2005.

Brown refers to himself as a psychological illusionist rather than a magician or mind-reader. He describes what his craft – which enables him to predict, suggest and seemingly control human behaviour - as a “mixture of applied psychology, magic, misdirection and showmanship”.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is billed as a “powerful and darkly disturbing two-hour fusion of magic, suggestion, psychology and misdirection”. It carries a warning that it’s unsuitable for under-12s or for the “very squeamish”. The show is directed by Andy Nyman and designed by Will Bowen, with lighting by Nick Richings. It’s presented in the West End by Michael Vine, Andrew O’Connor and David Walker for Objective Productions.

The Cambridge Theatre has been dark since the closure, on 19 February 2005, of the controversial but award-winning musical Jerry Springer - The Opera (See News, 12 Jan 2005).

- by Terri Paddock

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