Playwright: Nathan Allen
At: House Theatre at the Viaduct,
3111 N. Western
Phone: (773) 251-2195; $15
Runs through: Oct. 4
In one of her songs, Annie Lennox sings, 'Dying is easy; it's living that scares me to death.' The line might work as a fitting epigram to the young—and getting noticed—House Theatre Company's production of Death and Harry Houdini. Playwright and director Nathan Allen has done a terrific job of using a fascination for, and a fear of death, to showcase the life of world-class magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (who was born Erich Weiss in Budapest in 1874). Death, as imagined by Allen, is Houdini's guiding force and greatest fear. It's what drives him to tempt it (in moments like a dramatic recreation of Houdini's water torture cell escape) and show that he holds the trump card over the grim reaper. As a centerpiece, death makes Death and Harry Houdini a brilliant, cohesive work.
House Theatre has brought together some superior creative forces to bring the show to life (including Andre Pluess' mesmerizing music and sound, Ben Spicer's vintage circus set, Tommy Rapley's choreography, Dennis Watkins' magic effects, and Laurie Klapperich's period costumes and flights of fancy, including a looming, hooded death personified figure, replete with gas mask). It also has cast some truly astonishing (and virtually unknown) talent to fill its major roles. Dennis Watkins evokes the power, hunger, and fear of the diminutive title character and fascinatingly couples his subject's desire for recognition with his more homespun hunger for love and acceptance. As Houdini's wife Bess, Maria McCullough does fine work, creating a quirky character that stands out in her own right, and not merely as the woman behind the legend.
Allen combines myth, legend, and factual detail to fashion this artistic homage to one of the twentieth century's most enduring and fascinating figures. Death and Harry Houdini, in feel, resonates with a kind of Redmoon Theater kind of artistic vision (including puppetry, special visual and sound effects, and a kind of ethereal aura). The final scene, when death finally wins out over Houdini, despite his attempts to tame it, we're treated to a climax of bright lights, horrific movement, and a snowstorm of magic playing cards. Magic is the operative word here. Death and Harry Houdini, with its singular, inspired voice, manages to make theater magic out of the life story of one of the world's greatest, and most magical, artists.