In 2014, when Alexis Michalik’s drama The Art of Illusion premiered in Paris, the show earned three Molière Awards—the highest honor in French theater. Set in 1984, the play’s protagonist is a young man who steals a purse in the metro; then, seeing that the owner is beautiful, he follows her to a Parisian cafe to return it. Pretending he merely stumbled upon her missing bag, the man tells an elaborate story about Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, a 19th-century watchmaker and musician. This begets the pair’s pursuit of Robert-Houdin’s original kinetograph. The show, translated into English, premieres at Hampstead Theatre. Tom Jackson Greaves directs. —Jensen Davis