The Return of the Brothers Davenport

Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Davenport brothers all presented supernatural entertainments to the people of Huddersfield. The Davenports brought their Cabinet Séance act in 1865, only to be run out of town by an angry mob who rejected them as charlatans. Houdini performed in 1903 and 1911, when he used conjuring tricks to debunk spiritualist beliefs. Conan Doyle, who endorsed the Davenports as genuine and believed Houdini secretly possessed psychic powers, lectured in support of spiritualism in 1919. Psychic controversies marked the beginning of Doyle and Houdini’s friendship when they met the following year, and they brought it to an end two years later, when the two men fell out over a supposed spirit communication from Houdini’s dead mother. The Return of the Davenports stages one final encounter between Doyle, Houdini and the Brothers Davenport, in which the truth may finally be revealed.