Monday 9 May 2011

Svengali, or the Art of Creating Tension

Source
I went to see Derren Brown's new stage show Svengali on Saturday in its closing night at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Even without Derren's very polite request to not reveal the details of the show to anyone I would never reveal the end of a show or story, particularily online (if you don't believe me ask my Mum if I've told her how Harry Potter ends yet). That's not about to change, so if you're here looking for spoilers then try someone else. What I am going to discuss is the similarities between that art of the performer and that of the writer, and a few observations that I made on creating nd maintaining tension in an unruly audience.