Impossible (Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh)

Could Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, have actually met Harry Houdini, the great magician and escapologist? It's not impossible, so writers Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky have devised a set of circumstances – backstage at the theatre, in a New York club – where they do.

Doyle, played by the imposing, paternalistic figure of comedian Phill Jupitus, and Houdini, given a mischievous streak of cleverness and impetuosity by Alan Cox, are at loggerheads over supernaturalism. Doyle believes that spiritualism will replace all other -isms and religions. And Houdini is dismissive of all such dribbling ectoplasmic babble.

Hannah Eidinow's neat, twisty production is dressed up in silent movie clips, a technical explanation of Doyle's Lost World movie made with model dinosaurs, a seance or two, party tricks (Cox is a dab hand at making a good fist of a disappearing hankie) and some rather po-faced, stilted dialogue.

The mutual respect between the two masters of suspense and illusion is bedevilled by a suspicion of fakery. The tipping point comes when Doyle claims to have made contact with Houdini's dead mother through his wife's speaking voice; but her Hungarian origins and Jewishness are traduced in the exposition, and the friendship falters.

It's a slight, enjoyable piece that doesn't plumb the Stoppardian depths or comic possibilities it suggests. And the Queendome venue in the Pleasance has bad sight lines if it's full (which it is) and a very squeaky floor. But Jupitus and Cox are a contagious couple, and worth catching.

Impossible continues at Pleasance Dome until 31 August