TODAY · 10:00am
Regular and Precious
Dougherty Arts Center · South
TODAY · 9:15pm
Houdini Speaks to the Living
Thursday, October 29 at Penfold Theatre Company, Austin
About this event
This Halloween marks 100 years since the death of legendary magician and escape artist Harry Houdini. Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, Austin’s award-winning Hidden Room Theatre commemorates the centennial with a special four-night theatrical production of Houdini Speaks to the Living, culminating on Halloween night. In this historical drama, Houdini and his real-life friend and nemesis, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, face off over their opposing beliefs about spirits, séances, magic and whether the dead can communicate with the living. Drawing on the two legends’ actual words, the production brings their famous debate to the stage in an eerie and theatrical Halloween experience.
Who's playing
Hidden Room Theatre is an award-winning Austin company. The show was written by Beth Burns and Patrick Terry, and it comes to Round Rock after runs in New York and Philadelphia and a stop at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Patrick Terry plays Houdini and Robert Matney plays Conan Doyle. Edinburgh reviewers praised both the magic and the acting.
What to expect
The play is set in 1924. Houdini is touring lectures that expose fraudulent mediums, and Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, is speaking up for Spiritualism. About three quarters of the text comes word for word from their letters, essays and diaries, drawn from the Harry Ransom Center's archives. Live illusion and séance-era effects run through it. It lasts about an hour, in a 126-seat theatre.
Why go
This is a short engagement built around the centennial of Houdini's death, and the final performance falls on Halloween itself. It suits anyone who likes history, magic or a spooky night out that is more thoughtful than scary. Penfold is a nonprofit theatre in the Rock Creek Plaza shopping center, so dinner and dessert are close by.
Where
Penfold Theatre Company · A, Austin TXDirections
