☆☆☆☆

Stepping in to Surreal: The Mind-Reading Show from Berlin! feels like stepping back in time.  We visit the era of mentalism presented as the junction of the scientific and the spiritual, embodied in a mythical, magical woman. Psychic Vivian and her partner in performance Roman Maria von Thurau take turns playing the role of the mentalist and the assistant. Decorative and magical in turn, their mentalism demonstrations are equal parts impressive and beautiful.

An early sequence sets the scene for the style of the show. Vivian is blindfolded on stage while Roman requests that members of the audience hold out objects for her to describe without seeing. Vivian successfully describes a varied range of such random objects, interspersed with a variety of fun facts that are so perfectly timed and perfectly amusing that the audience almost doesn’t care if they are genuinely true.

Roman, the mathematician of the pair, follows up with a pi-based routine that blends classic calculator based mentalism with what he describes as a pandemic boredom-induced knowledge of the digits of pi. Few performers can make a recitation of a random selection of the digits of pi fun to watch, but Roman manages it, with a final revelation that the audience won’t see coming.

The third star of Surreal is the beautifully realized animations interspersed amongst the magic, which were hand drawn by Vivian in preparation. Vivian accompanies her artwork with autobiographical self-mythologizing stories from hers and Roman’s life. It’s impossible to choose which is the highlight of the show, the artwork or the magic, and the audience is lucky to be treated to both.

At the reviewed show, Surreal was briefly interrupted by several small technical issues. Such are often the pitfalls of a review relatively early in the run. Vivian and Roman dealt with these with steadfast professionalism—future audiences can be confident that they will witness a beautiful show regardless of any such issues. Their vintage throwback style suited it; after all technology is known to behave erratically in the presence of psychic powers such as Vivian’s. The magic goes much more smoothly than the technology.

With its central location, post-workday time slot, and of course beautifully performed mentalism, Surreal will undoubtedly prove to be a hit this Fringe. Vivian and Roman’s vintage presentation of mentalist classics sets them apart from the crowd of magicians at this year’s festival. If Vivian and Roman are not ageless immortals who entertained eighteenth century nobility with their timeless performance style, the lineage from historic performances to theirs is especially clear to see, and renews magic fans’ appreciation for the heritage of magic as an art form. Fans of mentalism in its contemporary iteration in particular will be delighted by this stylish throwback.

More information on Surreal and its’ performance dates can be found here.