Artists Lizzie Tollemache and David Ladderman have ''blown into town'' to bring Victorian variety entertainment to Dunedin for four nights from tonight.
Ladderman said their show Mr and Mrs Alexander: Sideshows & Psychics at the Fortune Theatre was a ''love letter'' to the golden age of variety entertainment in the latter part of the 19th century.
''When magic and spiritualism was captivating audiences . . . magic seemed like science and science seemed like magic.''
Tollemache said the ''fun show with a lot of laughs'' had sleight of hand and spoon bending, mind-reading and magic, human blockhead and hypnotic illusion.
The show was inspired by personal accounts and confessions of travelling performers in the era.
''Think about snake oil salesmen and the travelling medicine shows, blowing into town for two nights and captivating people and then disappearing in the middle of the night - just when people found out there were certain items missing,'' she said.
There were similarities between the ''itinerant performers'' and the married couple, who call Christchurch home but rarely see it, have performed in five countries and across New Zealand, from Kaitaia to Stewart Island.
''We are inheriting a tradition that had been passed through the ages - we are standing on the shoulders of giants,'' Ladderman said.
