Preview: Derren Brown Showman at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

Preview: Derren Brown Showman at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

The multi-award winning master of mind control and illusion, Derren Brown, is at Mayflower Theatre from Tuesday 26 to Saturday 30 July with his one-man show, Showman.

The content of Showman remains a closely-guarded secret, but Derren reveals: “The heart of the show is about remembering what’s important. Like how the very things that we find most isolating in life – our fears and difficulties – actually connect us. Framed with what I think will be some extraordinary demonstrations of my voodoo.”

Derren’s live shows have won him two prestigious Olivier Awards – for Something Wicked This Way Comes (2006) and Svengali (2012) and he has received more Olivier nominations and wins than any other one-man show in theatre history.

“Strangely, the show pre-Covid was, at its heart, about how the tough things in life that we feel isolate us – tend in fact to bring us together, and be the very things that we share,” he adds. 

“And then lockdown happened, which was a strangely literal playing out of that theme. So although the benefit of extra time has allowed us to re-work the show a little and change some aspects of it, its heart has remained the same.

“2022 will be the biggest tour I’ve done in 20 years. It’s exciting and daunting and I’m considering a bigger suitcase. Maybe even a four-wheeler. 

“It’s madness and I can’t wait.”

Tickets for Derren Brown Showman (Tuesday 26 to Saturday 30 July) are on sale at mayflower.org.uk or 02380 711811.

  • Can you help our funding appeal? We rely on donations from readers to keep In Common running. Could you help to support In Common, for as little as 25p  a week? Please help us to keep on sharing stories that matter with a monthly donation. Visit: https://www.patreon.com/incommonsoton