Houdini Speaks To The Living - The Space on the Mile - Review

What do a writer famed for the creating perhaps the world's best known detective, and a magician most known for his daring escapology have in common? The answer? Spiritualism. But there is one major difference. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a believer, pining his hopes on mediums to reconnect him with his deceased son. Harry Houdini was a debunker, horrified by the rise in fake spiritualists playing on the emotions of grievers. He spent the later years of his life exposing liars and using his own magical skills to prove that with logic and science, the things seen in seances could be recreated without the aid of the paranormal.

With Houdini Speaks To The Living, Hidden Room Theatre use real conversations between the of sort friends turned enemies of Conan Doyle and Houdini to tell the story of how Houdini's desires to debunk and not to fall into the faker's realms of emotional cruelty led the grieving father Conan Doyle to never talk to him again in a small yet powerful piece of theatre that combines performed live magic with real life drama, picking apart the theories of both believers and sceptics.

Patrick Terry plays the famous illusion; wonderfully clever, driven and passionate, but that passion doesn't come from wanting to be right, wanting to show off, no it comes from the heart. Beneath the showman, he is caring, and his drive to prove the mediums to be fakes comes from wanting to protect those being tricked. Terry is a captivating performer, able to perform a number of magic tricks from telepathy to the moving of objects with an apparent ease and in the quieter moments when he just stands and listens to Arthur Conan Doyle's feelings, there is power and intelligence in his gaze, as if you can feel him taking it all on and hear the cogs turning in his mind as he decides what to do, decides what he can prove debunkable in front of this believer.

Arthur Conan Doyle, played by Robert Matney, is grief stricken by the death of his son, clinging to any possibility of seeing him again including putting his faith in mediums. Determined to share his belief with the sceptical Houdini, he lists off names of famous spiritualists and explains what he saw them do, from levitating tables to getting spirits to write out their communications, only to have his hopes dashed when Houdini recreates it all using his own scientific trickery. Throughout the 50 minute piece, we see Matney portray both Conan Doyle's amazement and disbelief of the magic and his utter heartbreak at losing his son. His refusal to agree that Houdini's magic is just tricks and based in science, instead believing the illusionist himself to be a medium with spirit contacts spirals to the play's powerful conclusion.

Depending greatly on audience interaction to make the clever magic work, the piece is incredibly engaging and balances illusions and drama with a dash of comedy brilliantly to create a thoroughly entertaining play that gives much more than you would first expert walking into to a little hotel meeting room to be met with just a small scattering of props. Terry delivers some genius little comic moments that catch you off guard and Matney drives the narrative forward with great skill. The piece is bookended by references to the ten year Houdini theory which saw him before his death make a deal with his wife for her to host a séance each year for ten years where he promised to send a message if it is indeed possible for the dead to contact the living. This was effective but perhaps created a slight anti-climax as I was left convinced that something was going to happen on the empty stage in the piece's final moments, just to squeeze in something that leaves the audience wondering who was on the right side of the argument, but that question is left in the hands of the viewer to decide, although I so feel that one final dose of magic could lift this into something special.

Overall, Houdini Speaks To The Living is a surprising little gem of a show that quietly makes an impact. Magic and drama combine to bring a real life story of two greats to life whilst investigating the famous paranormal argument of life after death and how trickster's and frauds play on people's emotions, something still seen today.