FringeReview UK 2026

Magic

Chichester Festival Theatre

Genre: Biographical Drama, Costume, Drama, Historical, Live Music, Magic, Mainstream Theatre, New Writing, Theatre

Venue: Chichester Festival Theatre

Festival: FringeReview UK

Low Down

Review

“You’re the most powerful medium I’ve ever met”  says the writer of sceptic Sherlock Holmes, turned spiritualist. “You’re the most beautiful magician of them all. Yours is the only magic that matters” says the magician, far more Holmes than his creator. How do two world-famous mutual admirers change places? David Haig’s Magic is directed at Chichester’s Festival Theatre till May 16 by Lucy Bailey.

Haig’s own quiet magic has haunted Chichester as performer and – memorably – for his acclaimed 2014 play Pressure, about predicting the weather for D-Day. No barometer here then. Bailey energises as ever a larger ensemble with elan, and makes the best possible case for Haig’s work.

Over two hours twenty-five with interval, David Haig’s Conan Doyle burls and occasionally blusters his path to proving the ethereal plane. The paradox is clear enough. Conan Doyle adores the artistry of Harry Houdini (always “Houdini”), played with a tense, exhilarating truth by Hadley Fraser. They meet after a spectacular show opening, with Fraser hung upside down and swinging in his chains against a gyrating supporting troupe.  And immediately they begin boxing.

Clearly there’s much the two hold in common. Conan Doyle the energetic sportsman and bluff purveyor of the beyond is inhabited by his stage creator Haig with a pained edge. Not for his son Kingsley killed at the Somme, but for those who can’t accept the thrilling discovery of the life beyond. Sir Arthur’s wife Jean (Claire Price) is fully behind her husband, manifesting a loving, self-effacing loyalty, proving she too has powers: at least to him. There is in Jean a self-effacing artistry, emerging in her singing (Price has a wonderful voice) and a musical career she sets at nought besides her spiritual work. But whether truthful, delusional, or just loyal, hers is a teasing role.

It’s matched by Fraser’s Houdini. Famed in the latter part of his career for exposing hoax mediums in the sudden resurgence of spiritualism following the trauma and loss of world War One, he’s realised here as someone who desperately wants to believe. Most of all he would love some assurance of the survival of his mother. Conan Doyle wants a similar assurance of his son. It’s Houdini’s debunking truth, each time wishing to be proved wrong, that’s the revelation of the evening. Fraser, both swashbuckling showman and quietly fierce interrogator is capable of roaring Houdini’s fury at yet again being proved right by those who – he might feel – obscure whatever truth there is in proof of the beyond.

Jenna Augen’s Bess Houdini is both a warm grounded presence and the comedian of the night. Her mix of innocence and shrewdness lifts her known supporting role to a vivid character. One who above all realises the forces at work are temporal, personal and set on a collision course. The scenes with Price are the most quietly exquisite of the evening.

Elsewhere Haig’s grand author seems somehow blunted. There’s a 1930 film clip of him talking, a year before his death, which gives a public sense, though not the complex one that crafted Holmes or even Professor Challenger. Haig gestures at frustration and devastation at the turn of events, but in Edward Thomas’ phrase he cannot quite bite the day (or character) to its core.  It’s puzzling. The main reason is Haig’s own depiction of a man wholly believing in it all. He briefly allows some frauds, but the complexity Haig brings to Houdini, the flinching nuance that makes Fraser’s magician so memorable, is surprisingly too polarised and unsubtle in Conan Doyle. Just as there might be licence in Haig’s depiction of Houdini, I’d welcome any casuistry that allows this subtle and ingenious writer more than a blunderbuss at the Absolute. Haig looks and sounds the part and has lived with his subject; his is still a powerful performance. It’s a few tweaks away.

Jade Williams, who also performs in the troupe, moves from Mina Crandon’s ethereal presence to someone inhabiting a more earthly plane in her final moments. Ben Jones, similarly apparates as Dr Crandon her brother and as member of the hard-working troupe. They multi-role energetically throughout, and often pop up in unexpected places, also comprising Marc Serratosa, Ella Tekere, Francois Testory, Kristin Wei Wong, yoked to Ayse Tashkiran’s movement direction.

Atmospherically lit by Aideen Malone, Joanna Parker’s design with its quick dissolves of stage dressing room, library and country house, has the sweep and space for John Bulleid’s illusion designs. Which are sparingly used – the opening inverted Houdini held by his ankles on a chain getting out of handcuffs previously shown to the audience; and the solid wall trick Conan Doyle insists is a nice rearrangement of Houdini’s molecules. There’s brief use of Dick Straker’s video design, mainly to flag venues but more strikingly the extraordinary Houdini library.

Beth Duke’s sound design amplifies a striking piano-led score from Orlando Gough (including an upright almost in the audience’s lap), that’s one of the most satisfying features.

This is perhaps a Minerva play writ large, and it’s no disrespect to the subject, writing or cast to suggest a smaller scale would suit it best; even if that regrettably limits its audience. There’s some padding too, with the talented troupe seeming on occasion redundant; particularly in the more engrossing second act, where emotional pressure really bites and the play’s stakes are raised. They need to be more fully integrated, or we need a slimmer play. As it is the first act drags somewhat with expositions – and polarised positions.

There’s real theatre, and dare one say magic here, especially when not forced and human confrontations play out. Their best moments come not as a dancing troupe but haunting the auditorium around the piano; with the ingeniously-adopted front row of seats. Theatrical magic sparkles a little more when audience members are recruited, however briefly.

The final moments, touching Haig’s My Boy Jack, show a brush with where Haig might come down on one side of the wall in this endless conundrum. But that wall, also the unknowable divide, refuses to give up its secrets, whatever side you’re on. Brave, timeless, and troubled, Magic sometimes refuses to give up its secrets too. Absorbing.

Fight Director Kate Waters, Casting Director Ginny Schiller CDG, Assistant Director Joanna Pidcock

Production Manager Chris Boone, Costume Supervisor Sian Harris, Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Supervisors Mark Marson for Campbell Young Associates, Props Supervisor Jonathan Hall for Marcus Hall Props, Illusions Associate  Patrick Ashe,

Company Stage Manager Sally Hughes, DSM Rob Le Maistre, ASMs Elsa Gear, Krystal(Xinyu) Fan.

Published May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 by Simon Jenner