Advertisement

Homepage

Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini is shown in chains in this photo circa 1899 (AP Photo, File)

Bound in chains, plunged upside down into a water-filled tank and flirting with death, Harry Houdini returned to the stage in Budapest on Friday as a new circus production celebrated the legendary escape artist a century after his death.

The Circus of Budapest premiered a performance inspired by Houdini’s most famous feats, recreating some of the daring escapes that left audiences astonished and helped turn him into one of the world’s first entertainment superstars.

Born Erik Weisz into a Hungarian Jewish family in 1874, Houdini emigrated to the United States, where he became renowned for defying locks, chains and seemingly impossible traps.

0:00 / 0:00

Promoted: Z3 2026

The Budapest production is not a biographical account of his life, but rather “a journey through the borderlands between life and death, remembrance and letting go, and the very nature of time,” the Circus’…