LUNCHTIME BATTLE OF FAITH V SCIENCE
Katie McCann keeps the audience guessing in this supernatural production
Katie McCann’s new play is a first-class piece of lunchtime theatre on a controversialsupernatural theme. Its source is the huge increase in European and American people who sought consolation from spiritualist mediums offering them contact with the souls of family members killed in World War I and then by the flu pandemic that followed.
There was such interest in the subject of spirits that, in 1922, Scientific American magazine held an international contest to find scientific proof of ghosts with a prize of $5,000*, pitting scientists against mediums.
The contest even involved the sceptical escapologist Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle, a medical doctor and author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, a firm believer in the existence of spirits and ghosts. Science had advanced considerably at the time through electricity and radio, giving mediums a new range of options. The competition – which ran for over a year, taking observations from more than 100 seances – was rigorously judged by a panel of scientists, mediums and Houdini. The play pits medium Hester O’Brien (Katie McCann) against a member of the investigating
‘Characters scared of what their probings may uncover about themselves’
panel, Nathaniel Harker (Naoise Dunbar), unapologetically sceptical of her powers, while she belligerently defends her reputation. The audience is cleverly kept guessing. And it’s not at all like Noel Coward’s satirical Blithe Spirit.
What makes it particularly interesting is that despite their lofty disdain for each other, these characters are emotionally vulnerable. The centrepiece is Hester’s seance, aimed at convincing Harker that she’s a worthy winner of the $5,000 prize, and it’s a tribute to the writing and performances that the balance is kept so well between the two of them.
These characters are not so much scared of the spirit world, but of what their probings may uncover about themselves.
The set design by Chrisi Chatzivasileiou, Hester’s wardrobe, the lighting, and the treasure trove of pictures and props, are an atmospheric contrast with the usual enforced austerity of the stage at Bewley’s.
(*By 1941 Scientific American had raised its prize money to $15,000. Still no winner.)