By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
What do you do when you discover your newly purchased home is haunted? Do you contact an exorcist? Do you call the Ghostbusters? Do you sell up and move away as fast as you can? Those are the usual courses of action in the movies, and people in real life tend to refuse cohabitation with the undead as well. But there’s another option that most people wouldn’t think of first: concocting an entire magic show around your ghosts and taking it on tour.
On Sunday, March 9, 2025, and Monday, March 10, 2025, the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, located at 440 Locust Street, hosted the travelling spectacle Outerbridge Magic: Mysteries of the Keyhole House. Illusionist Ted Outerbridge and dancer Marion Outerbridge, the stars of the show, are partners in all aspects. They are married. They perform on stage together wherever they go around the world. And, as most married couples do, they bought a house together, one that had some very unexpected roommates. They bought a home in Ottawa Valley, restored it, and named it the Keyhole House, but soon discovered that the house’s old inhabitants weren’t quite ready to let go of the place just yet. But rather than try to expel their spectral companions, Ted and Marion learned to cooperate with the spiritual world and adopted their ghosts as muses for a rather unique entertainment experience.
Have you ever been to a magic show that follows a narrative? This one does. The magic and the supernatural meet each other as Ted shares the spooky tales and eventful history of Keyhole House with the audience. The tricks accompany the stories, or the stories accompany the tricks, however a patron wishes to look at it. The narration itself challenges the audience’s varied attention spans without overextending them, ensuring they stay immersed. The audience is compelled to pay attention. For those who don’t follow along, the wow factor of the Outerbridges’ tricks may fall slightly flat. The best way to enjoy a séance, a possession, or the powerful mystery surrounding the objects lifted from the house is to care about the ghosts’ backstories.
Some viewers may question the necessity of the show’s avant-garde dance elements. As a professional dancer as well as a magician’s assistant, Marion Outerbridge weaves her whole skillset into the scenes. It’s not a conventional performance from a magician’s assistant, who is traditionally expected to smile, pose, and allow themselves to be sawed in half. But Marion is more than just an ornament on stage and brings personality to her act. Her dance as the black-veiled Agnes, a heartbroken ghost with a tragic past, is stunning.
For the skeptical viewer, there is always that rational brain, silently working to deconstruct each trick and calculate the secrets that could be ingenious tech manipulations or perhaps something even more complex. Some may ask themselves, were the volunteer audience members picked out in advance? Where’s the invisible wire or the trap door? What makes Mysteries of the Keyhole House work for the viewer is that it asks you nicely, at least for the span of the show, to believe. In ghosts. In magic. In the realm where the two intertwine. Where is the fun in attending such a show at all, if you’re not going to allow yourself to be spooked? And spooked you will be. A floating box in the air? A Victorian doll that disappears? That is the work of a magician. That is also the work of a poltergeist. The Outerbridges have taken inspiration from their spirits.
The next magician on the Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s agenda will be worldwide sensation Lucy Darling. She’ll be performing at the centre on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be bought here. For theatregoers with more of a vaudeville taste, Tomáš Kubínek’s show will be showing one night only, on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. Tickets for his show can be bought here.
