ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a play by Susan I. Weinstein, presented Dec.2019 in I.R.T.’s studio B experimental theater residency program. ETHER is a play within a play, a story told (with the aid of projections, puppetry, and stage magic). Doyle and Houdini’s afterlife is a continuation of a passionate personal war about the nature of life and death. Yet their worlds are contained within the afterlife–our present in abstracted media. Their wives, Bess and Lady Doyle, are aware of this, yet tethered to their husband’s worlds. They join forces to resolve the bitter conflict so all can move on. The journey starts with the origins of Houdini’s persona, his escapes and Doyle’s vocation and revelations. Together they investigate mediums, famous and infamous; Mr. Powell, Margery, Eva C and even Lady Doyle. Each instance they emerge with dramatically opposite narratives. As evidence mounts up. Subjective and objective truths erupt in a transcendent conclusion

Credits

Patrick Hamilton, Houdini

Thomas Vorsteg,Doyle

Chelsea Rodriguez, Lady Doyle

Lauren Elizabeth, Bess Houdini

Marcus Gualberto, Director

About the Artist

Susan I Weinstein’s ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dec 19-22nd 2019 at IRT Theatre in 3B residency program. Dir. Marcus Gualberto. Susan’s lingo play, THE WAPSHOT WHATEVER: The Secret Lives of Computer Programs prod 2018 Dixon Place Mainstage (dir. Vincent Sandvoort). Her 2014 Adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid” produced ToyKraft in Williamsberg,dir. Charlie Kanev, music Rima Fand.

Susan’s lingo play, “Rabies”, produced A.C.T. at Squaw Valley, dir. Ed Hastings. Her first play. “Stakes,” a psychological vampire play, led to a playwriting scholarship at Univ. Iowa. “White Walled Babes”, a lingo play, was developed at The Public Theater, produced at Trinity Rep (dir.Susan Smyth). Her green card play, “Something About that Face,” selected by Samuel French, produced at Harold Clurman Theater (dir. Brian Mertes)

In 2016-18 Pelekinesis published Susan’s books, The Anarchist’s Girlfriend, Paradise Gardens, Tales of the Mer Family Onyx.