Brothers in arms: Ryan and Scott Fletcher as the infamous brothers Davenport Pic: Tommy Gok-Ka Wen
Theatrical magic, in the context of the tiny Scottish company Vox Motus, is more than a lazy cliché. Their speciality, which has won them many supporters, is special effects, illusion and legerdemain. Jamie Harrison, one of the co-founders, along with Candice Edmunds, is himself a professional magician.
So when they announced they were creating a show based on a pair of 19th century American illusionists, with the playwriting skills of Peter Arnott and the large-scale resources of the Royal Lyceum behind them in a co-production, expectations were high.
Ira and Willie Davenport were the Derren Browns and David Copperfields of their day. In a world where summoning the spirits of the departed was becoming fashionable, they were, judging by contemporary accounts very, very good.
But what is the story that Edmunds and Harrison are trying to tell here? Is it simply the loving recreation of a typical illusionist evening, complete with society hostess , whose desperation to contact her lost husband overcomes her natural scepticism, and flamboyant presenter (Anita Vettesse and especially Gavin Mitchell on excellent form)?
There are certainly some pretty and clever things. I couldn’t see how that heavy table rose up or how that tambourine floated out over the audience. And the cabinet of spirits, set centre stage, concealed more mysteries.
Is it the elaborate (and, as the creators admit, largely invented) back story about how and why they became illusionists, based on the early death of their sister in which their father is suspiciously implicated?
Is it about the credulity of late 19th century American audiences compared to now? The holy roller rhetoric of a scene from early in their careers, where Willie apparently heals Ira of his paralysis, would not be out of place at a Rick Santorum electoral rally.
In the end it manages to be none of these things, a show that adds up to less than the sum of its parts, despite the best efforts of Ryan and Scott Fletcher (actual brothers) as Ira and WiIlie respectively. And the final flourish, which removes any ambiguity about the whole act being a fake and the brothers a pair of charlatans rather spoils the... well, the illusion.
The Infamous Brothers Davenport at the Royal Lyceum until February 11 and then touring to the Glasgow Citizens and Eden Court, Inverness until February 25.
