In Magic, David Haig explores the extraordinary bond of Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle

Two men brought together, and then divided, by grief. Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the uber-rational detective Sherlock Holmes, mourns the loss of his soldier son, slain in the first world war. Harry Houdini, escapologist extraordinaire, cannot reconcile himself to the death of his beloved mother.

David Haig’s new play, based in fact, is well worth seeing for its moving exploration of the tensions within and between these characters, delivered in superbly crafted performances by Haig himself as Conan Doyle, and Hadley Fraser as Houdini. The play’s dramatic construction, though, is weak, in spite of a pleasingly theatrical, vaudeville-themed production by the director Lucy Bailey, featuring a sparkling dance troupe and baffling illusions (designed by John Bulleid, who also razzle-dazzled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child).

Meeting for the first time in Houdini’s dressing room, the two men discover shared interests in spiritualism and boxing. Bess and Lady Jean, their wives, look on (Jenna Augen and Claire Price, respectively, giving depth to roles that are underdeveloped). Both men have been attending seances in the hope of making contact with their dead. Ironically, the science-trained Conan Doyle believes he has succeeded and has become an enthusiastic proselytiser for the spiritualist movement; Houdini the illusionist, however, is sceptical. From now on, the two will spar over whose is the “true” position.

Haig tilts the balance in favour of Houdini. At seances held by the celebrated 20th-century medium Mina Crandon (played with visceral intensity by Jade Williams), Conan Doyle is clearly credulous and we are made party to Houdini’s early, private discovery of her tricks, as well as to his later public exposé. Conan Doyle’s emotional trauma is made pitiable. Instead, it is Houdini who counters false hopes with a rational understanding of the human need to believe that “the impossible is possible”.

Magic is at Chichester festival theatre, Chichester, until 16 May

Photograph by Manuel Harlan