Shezad Dawood: A Mystery Play

For A Mystery Play (2010), London, UK-based artists Shezad Dawood reprises his interest in Buster Keaton and Keaton’s connection to Harry Houdini via the Vaudeville Circuit of the 1920s. Both performers had performed at the Pantages Playhouse Theater in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dawood was invited to Plug In ICA in Winnipeg as faculty for the Summer Institute, and this film was commissioned and produced during his time there. It was subsequently exhibited at Plug In ICA.

Influenced by the historical significances of Winnipeg, A Mystery Play stages the new work between the Pantages Playhouse Theatre , the Manitoba Legislature and various outdoor locations around Manitoba. Drawing on research into the Masonic symbolism inherent in the Manitoba Legislature to parallel ideas of magic or visual sleight-of-hand encompassed in the work of both Keaton & Houdini, the work also maps out various other histories and narratives contained within Winnipeg and Canada, for example, introducing the figures of Mademoiselle Adgie , the burlesque dancer who performed with lions for the opening gala of the Pantages Playhouse and Canadian magician Dai Vernon: ‘The Man who fooled Houdini’.

The film shows the lyrical interweaving of the plausible connections between the various characters and the city, intercut with the various stages of initiation incorporated into the architecture of the Legislative Building. It builds to a final climactic scene, restaging one of the key stunts from Keaton’s classic 1928 Steamboat Bill Jr ., where a house appears to spiral down to the ground in a storm, and Keaton steps through the door, thus bringing together the strands of architecture and screen magic.

Shezad Dawood is a multidisciplinary artist who interweaves stories, realities and symbolism to create richly layered artworks, spanning painting, textiles, sculpture, film and digital media. Fascinated by ecologies and architecture, his work takes a philosophical approach, asking questions and exploring alternative futures through what Dawood describes as ‘world-building'. His practice is animated by research, working with multiple audiences and communities to delve into narrative, history and embodiment.

Selected solo exhibitions and commissions include: A Garden of the Floating World, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2025); Leviathan, Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury (2023); Night in the Garden of Love, Inspired by & featuring Yusef Lateef, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2023); Night in the Garden of Love, Inspired by & featuring Yusef Lateef, WIELS, Brussels (2023); Integrations, Barakat Contemporary, Seoul (2023); HMS Alice Liddell, St Pancras Wires commission, London (2022); and Hybrid Landscapes, Deutsche Bank Frieze Lounges (2022).

Above: Shezad Dawood, A Mystery Play, 2010. Super 16mm transferred to HD, 14:04. 

Curated by Anthony Kiendl with Sara Raza and Commissioned for Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg.