'Exclude the impossible and what is left, however improbable, must be the truth.'Harry Houdini is the greatest illusionist the world has ever known. Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of literature’s most brilliant detective, Sherlock Holmes.
When their mutual admiration blossoms into a profound friendship, they discover a shared obsession with spiritualism. But while Conan Doyle believes fervently in the psychic world and the promise of reunion with his dead son, Houdini is determined to demonstrate it’s a cruel fraud. Which of them will be proved right: the genius writer of fiction or the master magician?
Based on extraordinary historical events, Magic asks what we’re prepared to believe, and why. It was first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2026, directed by Lucy Bailey and starring Hadley Fraser as Houdini and playwright David Haig as Conan Doyle.
David Haig’s other plays include My Boy Jack and Pressure, which also premiered at Chichester and received widespread critical acclaim, a London transfer, and a film adaptation.
David Haig is an actor and playwright. His stage plays include:
Magic (Chichester Festival Theatre, 2026);
Pressure (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, and Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 2014);
The Good Samaritan (Hampstead Theatre, London, 2000) and
My Boy Jack (Hampstead Theatre, 1997).
My Boy Jack was filmed for ITV, starring David Haig, Daniel Radcliffe and Kim Cattrall, and broadcast in November 2007.
His distinguished acting career includes West End appearances in Yes, Prime Minister (a transfer from Chichester); Art, Dead Funny (a transfer from Hampstead), Journey’s End, The Country Wife and The Sea. At the National Theatre he appeared in Alan Ayckbourn’s House/Garden, and at the Royal Court in Hitchcock Blonde and The Recruiting OfficerM. He has worked extensively for the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing, amongst others, Angelo in Trevor Nunn’s production of Measure for Measure. He won the Olivier Award for Best Actor for Our Country’s Good at the Royal Court, and received nominations for Mary Poppins and Donkeys’ Years, both in the West End.
His television and film appearances include Yes, Prime Minister, Mo, The Wright Way, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Thin Blue Line, Talking Heads and Crime and Punishment.
