You won't want to get out of this theatre date

Feb 3 2006 By Joe Riley, Liverpool Echo

IT may well be a mystery - but not so much 'whodunnit' as 'Houdini'.

The Escapologist, a getout-of-that drama invading the Everyman this month, is about characters who want to run away from something or even themselves.

And the nifty device for illustrating their dilemma is a look at the life and tricks of Harry Houdini, the legendary Hungarian-born stunt artist and one-time president of the American Society of Magicians.

Houdini hated phonies and actively campaigned against fraudulent mediums.

But there was nothing fake about his own abilities to get out of a fix, be it in handcuffs, shackles, submerged in a tank or hanging upside down.

Suspect Culture, a Glasgow-based company hoping to start a long-term relationship with Liverpool, are all geared up for some great escapes - with a little help from video technology.

Their co-founder and artistic director Graham Eatough explains: "The play is based on a book, Houdini's Box.

"A psychotherapist, his patients, a fair degree of self doubt and scepticism and some of Houdini's stunts make up the mix."

Graham - actually from Blackburn - set up Suspect Culture in 1992 with a fellow student at Bristol University. They then based themselves in Scotland as Glasgow was enjoying the benefits of its City of Culture status in 1992.