Arthur Conan Doyle's wife "sincere" in her psychic powers
Millamant in The Way of the World at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2012, Claire Price returns now to Chichester for this first time since as Jean Conan Doyle in David Haig’s play Magic (until Saturday, May 16).
Harry Houdini is the greatest illusionist the world has ever known. Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of literature’s most brilliant detective, Sherlock Holmes. Their mutual admiration blossoms into a profound friendship, even as they discover a shared obsession with spiritualism – an obsession which will divide them.
Conan Doyle believes fervently in the psychic world and the promise of reunion with his dead son; Houdini is determined to demonstrate it’s all a cruel fraud.
Claire is Conan Doyle’s wife: “She is an interesting figure. They met when he was married to his first wife Louisa who was unwell for many years. She had an illness for which there was no cure and for which there was just a slow degradation. He was in that marriage and they had an unhappy life but then he met this young woman Jean who was 15 years younger than him and a student at the Guildhall School of Music, learning singing with the idea that she would commit to it professionally. They fell in love and there was a sense that this was the real love marriage of his life. The first marriage was different. To start with, they had to have this romantic platonic relationship but eventually Louisa died and they married. They had three children of their own.
“By that point Conan Doyle was moving away from writing and really just wanting to raise awareness of spiritualism. She was initially a sceptic but over time she came to believe and she came to believe that she had psychic powers... and that is such a fascinating question in itself. You have to begin with the big question whether it is possible to communicate with spirits. If you believe that it is, then it is totally feasible that she had psychic powers. If you don't believe that it's possible then you have to say that she is either lying or deluded. But I think that she totally believed that she had these powers. She doesn't ever think of herself as lying.”
The key thing is why do we believe what we believe: “And I believe that it was a comfort to her. The most important thing for her was to be Arthur’s best mate, his helpmate in everything that he does. And that does not mean that she was lying and it doesn't mean that she wasn’t!”
But the crucial context is the aftermath of World War One with its huge loss of life: “You have to say that it makes emotional sense that this is what she believed.”
Magic is Claire’s first time back in Chichester since The Way of the World: “I remember the theatre was about to be renovated at the time. I don't think we were last show before the renovation, but I do remember it as a very beautiful experience. The designer was brilliant and used this wonderful sari fabric. We just glittered and the whole set was made of mirrors. We just glittered everywhere we went!”