Review: The Last Seance of Harry Houdini by Bottle Alley Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs

Old houses—and especialy mansions that are no longer inhabited—have memories. Or at least we impute memories to them, for they have housed generations of families, people no longer with us, people so long gone. Step into a well-preserved dwelling that once contained daily lives fifty, a hundred, or more years ago, and it becomes a temple. Like François Villon, it subtly asks us, Où sont les neiges d'antan? Metaphoricaly though not literally, that's "Where have all the yesteryears gone?"

 

Have they, the years and the people who inhabited them, simply vanished? Or have they gone elsewhere, to some location beyond our grasp? That was the crucial question of the movement of spirituaism which flourished in the U.S. and the U.K., especially following the enormous number of soldiers killed in what then was known as the Great War.  Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, declared himself a devotee of spiritualism and psychic phenomena in 1887 (thanks, Wikipedia!) and published a two-volume history of spiritualism in 1926 (thanks agin, W!).

 

 

llusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini became an ardent critic of spiritualism, even going so far as demonstrate an illusion to Doyle in an effort to dissuade the writer. Doyle refused to believe him. Houdini relentlessly criticized spiritualists and exposed many as frauds. He and his wife Bess agreed that after death, the departed spouse would try to communicate a coded message. He died of acute appendicitis in 1926, and Bess held annual seances seeking to communicate. The last was in 1936, after which Bess declared that "ten years is enough to wait for any man."

 

These are some of the facts that inspired Bottle Alley Theatre Company's The Last Séance of Harry Houdini by Cynthia Reifsteck and Trace Turner. In addition to Bess Houdini and her general manager Edward Saint as promoter of the event, the playwrights created parts for historical associates of Houdini, celebrities including Lady Jean Conan Doyle and Mae West, and reporters.

 

You've probably often passed Flower Hill Center at 1316. W. 6th Street, Austin without noticing it. On this occasion the historic residence was well lit and the winding drive up from 6th Street was lined with lit paper lanterns. The opening evening performance was introduced with a brief lecture on spiritualism and Houdini, held on the screened-in rear porch, then the twenty-five or so persons in attendance were invited to visit the house. 

 

 

 

Characters were ready to interact with the public at three stations: a front living room, a dining room, and a gazebo in the rear. This proved a bit awkward, for the characters hadn't been presented; one had to glean their identities from the semi-improvisational interactions. No one really knew who the dapper, deep-voiced Edward Saint (Nick Gilley) was or why he was hosting; Bess Houdini (Kathleen Fletcher) wasn't present; Lady Conan Doyle (Jess Saphronia Sollace) was in dialogue with Margery Crandon (Meret Slover), later revealed to be one of the mediums whom Houdini had targeted.

 

Walter B. Gibson (Livingston Denegre-Vaught) was nervously glib, fumbling and commenting card tricks but not really explaining that he'd been an associate of Houdini (he'd later be Houdinis biographer). Out in the gazebo an extravagant woman was in dialogue with reporters; that charming brunette (Meagan Majors), it later became clear, was Mae West, whom one theatre writer criticized for "her exploitation of blond buxomness." This was an interesting and diverse collection of characters, even if we weren't quite sure who they all were.

 

 

 

A bell called the spectators to a more modern outbuilding, probably usually a garage, where a long table faced the chairs for the audience. The séance proper was held, with host Edward Saint invoking Houdiini at length. Special effects and lighting intensified the presentation, characters appeared uplifted and occasionally spiritually possessed as all waited for Houdini. Afterward, when Bess formally declared the gathering ended, visitors trailed again to the porch.

 

In that final scene members of the ensemble addressed the seated spectators and one another, describing themselves and their reactions, at times gesturing, sometimes with unexpected, ritualistic movements like those they'd experienced during the séance. Fletcher as Bess Houdini had the final words, eloquently rejecting spirituaism and its claims to channel communication to those no longer with us.

 

This was a spookily entertaining evening, all the more appropriate to the season because Harry Houdini did die on October 31, and the annual séances were held on that date. Flower Hill Center was a discovery and an appropriate setting, both for the unspoken memories that seemed to exude from its timbers and for the starkly formal setting of the séance in the outbuilding. We did gradually become familiar with the characters, who defined themselves over the course of the evening. The séance brought them together though with reduced interaction, and the final scene offered no reconciliation of their histories or contrasting views.

 

The strongest impression I took away was the need and desire for ritual. Or call it liturgy. The Last Séance of Harry Houdini rejects spiritualism, as did the man himself. Yet Trace Turner's direction stresses formalized action. Of course, theatrical performance is necessarily ritual; in addition, this evening is full of ritual and ecstatic movement, both jointly at the ceremony of the séance and individually in the final scene as characters presented themselves. 

 

This is a world without ghosts but one that still yearns for transcendent experience. Perhaps it's just the rush and shiver of a Halloween scare; maybe it's only the out-of-body experience of experiencing a theatrical performance. Or maybe these individuals, both characters and actors, are looking for more than just your ordinary day-to-day existence.

 

 This work certainly does provide that.

 

EXTRA

Click HERE for the program of The Last Séance of Harry Houdini

 

 

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The Last Seance of Harry Houdini
by Bottle Alley ensemble
Bottle Alley Theatre Company

October 23 - November 2, 2025

Flower Hill Center, 1316 W. 6th Street, Austin 78703

Tickets are on sale here.