Teller, the shorter, quieter half of Penn & Teller, was captivated as a boy by the subversively macabre offerings of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Start with that sensibility, stir in the theatrical daring and honest skepticism of Houdini, add some twisted humor and dazzling effects, and you'll get a sense of the flavor of Play Dead, which opens this month at the Players Theatre, in New York. The play—directed by Teller, co-written by Teller and magician Todd Robbins, and with a cast headed by the wittily fiendish Robbins— takes the form of a midnight "spook show,'' a throwback to the late-night programs of the 1930s and 40s which gave (largely teenage) post-movie audiences both the cheesy chill of sudden terror and the erotic warmth of mutual comfort. Yes, Play Dead has an actual plot and some points to make along the way about death and deception. But the medium, so to speak, is also part of the message. The show conjures luminous specters, illusory murders, messages from the dead, disembodied hands, phantom touches, and various other forms of dramatically unpredictable misbehavior, often under cover of darkness. When he first got together with Robbins, says Teller, "we began thinking in broader terms, not about 'ghosts' but about 'the dead' and night and fear, and how all these things—when placed in the theater—can affirm life and explode with fun and joy." Fun and joy, to be sure, but there's more than a little of another ingredient. As Teller observes, live theater is one place "where you can do evil without doing harm."