When characters in a play perform magic, it’s a chance to lure magic aficionados into a theater audience, and it’s also an opportunity to turn theater buffs into magic fans. (Poof!) We won’t say which is more challenging, but it’s the second one. Magic is quite the love/hate discipline.

Speaking of which, Brelby Theatre Company presents a story about two people who happen to be magicians married to each other in The Pledge, continuing through Saturday, July 1. Natty and David live and work side by side until one cuts the other out of the stage act.