PLAY ABOUT HOUDINI TOURS THE US

A Regular Little Houdini.

A Solo Show.

A play of hope and magic! Set in the sprawling urban slums of the South Wales docklands at the turn of the last century; a coming of age story about a young boy from the docks who idolises Houdini and commits himself to a life of magic, but the harsh reality of working-class life in Edwardian Britain gets in the way. A tenacious dreamer, he trains himself to emulate his hero’s escapology amongst the mud and rust of his industrial surroundings, charming those hard-working realists around him but putting himself and others in danger as he becomes more dettached from reality. His parents struggle to come to terms with their son’s eccentricity and our boy struggles in the mud and the filth to, not only achieve his dream of becoming an escapologist, but to survive, in a ruthless Edwardian dock town. As he grows our boy finds himself an integral part of the most terrifying events of British industrial history and his personal journey even intersects with the world’s greatest showman himself. A connection which will influence both characters till the end of their days. With his hero’s guidance, he battles against the irrepressible tide of responsibility, to balance childhood folly and humanity with the cynicism of adulthood.

A story of youthful imagination and joie de vivre with a very real vein of jeopardy brought about by the harsh realities of working-class industrial daily life. It’s a beautiful tale of hope and magic inspired by my own family stories and of course the real life visits of Houdini to Newport.

Houdini twice came to working class, industrial Wales, in 1905 and 1913, both times kicking off his European tours. He had an affiliation with the town of Newport. Being the product of an immigrant Hungarian Jewish family, growing up in the melting pot of New York, he recognised the similarity of the immigrant industrial areas. Newport’s Pill (the dock town), being an international melting pot. In the States, his audiences were strongest in these industrial areas because he epitomised the “young immigrant success story”. He chose Newport as his springboard into Europe, as, at the time, it was a buzzing industrial hub. As it happens, his publicity stunts involving Newport police, their cells and a public jump off Newport Bridge, landed him on the front page of the national newspapers. Just the ticket for a master of self publicity.

I come from a family of dockers, from Pill in Newport. My Dad and Gammy (granddad) were great story tellers. One great granddad a docker, the other a policeman. It’s their true stories plus other family yarns of the dockside, plus Houdini’s escapades plus the Newport Docks disaster of 1909 plus the building of the Transporter Bridge in 1906 plus my story of becoming an entertainer, which all come together to create this fabricated tale of a young boy with an irrepressible spirit who fights all the odds to break the mould and “escape” the drudgery of his perilous surroundings whilst keeping respect for his roots. The whole story is told through the eyes of a dreamer, a boy whose imagination knows no bounds, his mix of adventure and real history blurs with tales of cyclopes and feats of daring do.

“A Regular Little Houdini” is a line from the show, it encapsulates the boy’s essence, a common metaphor for someone who always lands on their two feet. When you see the show you’ll understand how poignant that is!

Touring the UK and USA with over 80 shows throughout 2016. Daniel Llewelyn-Williams recently won “best Actor” at the Wales Theatre Awards.

Please see the website for tour details

www.aregularlittlehoudini.co.uk

(616 Words, 3028 Characters)