REVIEW: Ben Hart – Labyrinth ★★★★☆ | Edfringe 2026

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026 | Assembly George Square Gardens

Putting a magician in the middle of a room, surrounding him with an audience and mirrors, and essentially giving him nowhere to hide feels slightly unfair.

Unless that magician is Ben Hart.

In Labyrinth, the Britain's Got Talent finalist combines sleight of hand, mentalism, storytelling and some wonderfully strange visual moments in an hour built around the choices we make and the paths they ultimately take us down.

Performing in the round inside the gorgeous Palais du Variété makes everything feel even more impossible.

You're constantly watching.

Everyone else is constantly watching.

The bloody mirrors are watching.

And I've still got absolutely no idea how he does half of it.

Cards appear where they shouldn't, predictions somehow become reality, keys disappear and reappear and audience members are brought directly into the action.

But one of the most memorable sequences doesn't involve a conventional magic trick at all.

Using shadow puppetry, Hart creates an array of animals and figures using his hands, head, hair and seemingly whatever other body parts he can find. It's simple compared with some of the elaborate illusions surrounding it, but completely captivating.

Hart himself has a slightly frantic, unpredictable energy that makes him much more interesting to watch than the ultra-polished, smug magician stereotype.

The show's central idea — following the thread through the labyrinth of life's choices — doesn't always feel quite as strong as the magic surrounding it. There are moments where the storytelling wanders and some of the build-ups could probably reach their destination a little quicker.

But then comes the finale.

And suddenly you realise Hart has been several steps ahead of you all along.

Inventive, atmospheric and frequently baffling, Labyrinth proves that sometimes the best thing you can do at a magic show is stop desperately trying to work out how it's done...

and enjoy having absolutely no bloody clue.

★★★★☆ – 4/5