Magic

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:18:40 +0000

“You almost had me” - this is the line that everyone utters at some point in their experiences of seeing magic tricks performed live. At the Festival Theatre in Chichester back in May, this “Magic” moment happens to me during a seance. It was the one moment in the play where I thought “uh-oh something is going on here….”

“Magic” extends the real-life friendship between Arthur Conan Doyle, Portsmouth FC’s most famous ever goalkeeper (sort of)⊕ Conan Doyle played for an amateur club in Portsmouth that was the precursor of the later professional club. Or, if you prefer, David James was actually Portsmouth FC’s most famous goalkeeper. and creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and Harry Houdini the famed stage illusionist. It’s a frustrating play because it cannot decide whether it wants to be a barnstorming confection that wows its audience with magic or if it wants to debunk it all. It tries to do both in service of a narrative that sets up its two main characters as antagonists, but does neither fully because it is unable to satisfactorily resolve that conflict.

Houdini on mattischrome

Magic