Review: Find your hidden insecurities at The Lost Things with Scott Silven

“Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and he does.” – Karl Germain, renowned American magician.

Scott Silven is an accomplished story teller.  And tonight’s story is about a young boy with an Ipod – remember those? – who is lost in a forest near his home in Hamilton, Scotland.

Ostensibly, it is Scott himself. But you’ll never really know.  Like so much in his new show The Lost Things, you are not sure where the line between fact and illusion is drawn.

You know you’ve been to a good illusionist show when everyone in the audience leaves asking:  “How does he do that?”

Silven is a good illusionist, and you will certainly be leaving asking that question if you see his performance at the Opera House ‘s 400-seater Playhouse Theatre.

It’s the inaugural run for this show, though Silven is no stranger to Australia. The young Scott brought his show Wonder here in 2022, and his dinner show the Illusionists Table to the Melbourne Festival.

Silven is a Scottish illusionist and mentalist who these days lives in New York.

The Playhouse is just right for this show.  You need atmosphere, and as Silven himself admits, the audience works as hard as he does to make the 90-minute performance a success.

When you arrive, here is an envelope attached to the back of your seat.  Inside is a Polaroid and a message about the theme of his show: that stories connect us, and that “getting lost is how we find what matters.”

A tall, Prada-clad figure with swept back hair and a Scottish accent, the stage is a “forest” in which it is all too easy to get lost.

Illusion is all about atmosphere and there is a mist around the stage trees and darkness most of the time (to wake the audience up, sometimes the lights go out and an electrical storm is conjured up).

It’s a one-man show but with lots of audience participation. And it’s here that the magic happens. It’s really all about you, your own hidden insecurities and beliefs.

Jane is asked to recall a birthday party, and Silven tells her how she is thinking of a flute birthday gift and the theme was Spiderman. He the pulls a Spiderman birthday card out of a box.

He asks her to recall a friend she hasn’t seen in years. When she does, he hands her a letter from her friend, complete with the friend’s name. How did he do it?

A grandfather sits on a chair, and Silven says he is thinking of the letter H and the number 54. The man appears surprised: his wife’s name is Helen and they were married for 54 years. How did he do it?

And on it goes, revelation after revelation. A father relates what he is secretly most proud of about his daughter, and she has already written him a thank you note that relates to his secret.

Trickery? Mind reading? A connection in the middle of a theatre? Who knows, but it is brilliantly executed and at no time do you feel uncomfortable.

We pass each other black envelopes, go on stage to take part in his illusions and shake our heads when we can’t understand how he guesses the six-digital iPhone code of one member of the audience (and secretly thank goodness it wasn’t us, as we’d have to create a new one!).

It’s clever, disconcerting and thought-provoking. Silven’s story is at the heart of his shows, and it is all highly relatable. Who hasn’t got a “lost thing” we all remember?

Storytelling is the backbone of Silven’s show. Audience participation is essential to what he does, and it is his skill as a laidback storyteller that relaxes us and welcomes us into his world as willing participants. Dressed in a stylish black suit, a floppy fringe framing his face, he is a charming host with a beguiling Scottish lilt, and the Sydney opening night audience was very happy to go on the journey with him.

Is he able to read minds? Are there people in the audience or backstage scribbling the answers to the questions? If there are, we never see them nor are we conscious there is anyone other than Silven and a young protégé who plays him as a teenager.

It’s entertaining, baffling, and thought-provoking all at the same time. It’s a unique piece of entertainment and well worth suspending belief for.

 
WHAT: Scott Silven: The Lost Things
WHEN: 11 – 29 June 2025
WHERE: Playhouse, Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: From $85 + booking fee

Production images: Daniel Boud.