Many people think you need to completely suspend your imagination in order to fully appreciate a magic show. Maybe I should try to do this, but I do not. After all I am a critic, and although critics are very often the biggest lovers of theatre, we are also often the most attentive and plain picky. I arrive with a cynical attitude and at the start I watch out for tiny mistakes and clues as to how the tricks were being performed. But as to needing to suspend my imagination, well, the performers do that for you! However cynical you are about magic shows I challenge you to see this and not come out utterly speechless. Within five minutes my cynicism about magic is utterly dissolved.

Jonathan Goodwin, a classic dare devil magician, has me pinned to the edge of my seat as he narrowly escapes from a straight jacket. Oh, did I mention he is on fire at the time? Ali Cook’s timing is impeccable and astounding. What epic magic show is complete without somebody attempting the famous Houdini underwater escape? He does it in seconds by the way – sorry for the spoiler! However, the magnificence of this show is that these magicians take classic and well-known magic tricks and make them bigger, better and faster, effortlessly satisfying an ever increasingly sceptical twenty first century audience.

Chris Cox, a fresh and unusual type of magician uses humour to occupy his audience while adding mind reading tricks here and there into the conversation. He is what I can only describe as a mind reader fused with someone you might see on Live at the Apollo. Ben Hart held his own with beautiful and skillful slight of hand magic. He was a calming and welcome juxtaposition to the intense and dramatic magicians of the evening. Jamie Allan mixes technology and magic in an attempt to create something new and innovative, which comprises of him cutting his glamorous assistant in two with a giant laser beam. His tricks are classic and perfectly executed, and although the added aspect of laser beams and iPads are an interesting addition, I doubt it will be the ‘next big thing’ in the magic world.

Then we come to the Italian born Luis de Matos who unquestionably blew my mind! It is one thing to sit and watch a magic show, but what if there was a magician who managed to make each and every audience member do magic on their own laps…with their own hands? Again, spoiler alert, but he did! Of course there will be pessimistic intellectuals in the audience who say ‘oh, but surely you can accomplish those results using maths?’ Well yes, I’m sure you can, but even if this trick was simply an extravagant and complex mathematical equation….it is still mind-blowingly impressive!

Although Katherine Mills, Sophisticated Sorceress, features in the programme, she is sadly missing from the final line up. Many of my feminist friends out there will, I’m sure, find it disappointing that the only female presence throughout the night are a small number of the traditionally tightly clad assistants in sparkles. It is true that the testosterone levels are powerfully high and apparent throughout the evening, but this is not a political show and nothing should take way from the extreme talent of these performers.

This show is sublime. It is wonderfully entertaining, exquisitely executed and fascinatingly engaging. But the most important thing of all….it got me excited about magic! I came out of the theatre speechless feeling like a small child who had just been to see their first show. Whether you’re going on a first date, a fortieth birthday party or simply an evening out after work on a Thursday night, this is a show for any occasion because it is simply just an astonishing evening of entertainment. All I can really say is go and get a ticket…Now!

Impossible is playing the Noel Coward Theatre until 29 August. For more information and tickets, see the Noel Coward Theatre website. Photo by the Noel Coward Theatre.