The magic of The Vanishing Man at Vault Festival

David Aula and Simon Evans have teamed up to create a ground-breaking piece of theatre, The Vanishing Man, described as a “time-hopping, misdirection-abusing, mind-bending examination of what really happens when a man, in full sight of his audience, simply ceases to be”. “This is a show about magic. But not a magic show,” they said. It tells of Hugo Cedar, an Edwardian magician known as The Vanishing Man, who created the perfect trick and then disappeared forever.

Hugo Cedar, on June 13th 1932, stood on London Bridge for over three hours and then, in front of dozens of onlookers, appeared to vanish before their eyes.

No magician has ever been able to work out this trick, yet Aula and Evans explore it here, with their "experiment in magic" that decodes why we like to be lied to. Simon Evans said: ”I've been able to work out, deconstruct and rebuild every trick I've ever seen. Except this one.”

Evans is a director and performer, as well as a long time magician and magical consultant. He recently directed The Dazzle with Andrew Scott, which played to sell out audiences and five star reviews, and his next project is Bug by Tracy Letts, starring James Norton and Kate Fleetwood.

David Aula’s The Cement Garden, starring George MacKay and Ruby Bentall, headlined the Vault festival in 2014, and he has just returned from performing at the Design Indaba in South Africa.

Evans and Aula are long time collaborators, having worked together on Madness in Valencia (Trafalgar Studios), The Misanthrope (White Bear), Maisie Says She Loves Me (Paines Plough Roundabout) and The Shawshank Redemption (Secret Cinema).

The Vanishing Man runs from 4th Feb - 6th March (8:15pm Feb, 6:15pm March) at Vault Festival.