Hooray for Hugh

LEEDS theatre-goers can ake a walk on the wild side exploring the Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes during his week long residency at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Hughes is the warm-hearted alter-ego of Shôn Dale-Jones, the artistic director of theatre company HoiPolloi, and from tonight he will be welcoming people into his world of joyous storytelling with a retrospective of his three theatre shows: Floating, Story of a Rabbit and 360.

First performed at the Playhouse in 2007, Floating tells the remarkable story of the day the Isle of Anglesey floated away from mainland Wales, drifted into the Atlantic and up to the Arctic.

Story of a Rabbit begins when Hugh finds his neighbour’s rabbit lying dead in his garden. The only sensible thing to do is to put it in a box, but it doesn’t fit. As Hugh puzzles over what to do with the body he starts to wonder how much of life disappears once we die.

360 is a story about friendship and sharing just about everything. Hugh climbs Snowdon with his best friend Gareth, but the journey to the summit leads to big questions about fantasy, first love and bottling things up.

The performances can be enjoyed separately and in any order and two extra events in the week’s residency will allow people to delve even deeper into Hugh’s Wonderful World.

Documentary film 'Hugh Hughes: How I Got Here' charts Hugh’s journey from the Welsh town of Anglesey into the art world and punters will also have the rare chance to enter the rehearsal room to help Hugh develop his work-in-progress performance piece, Stories From An Invisible Time.

Hugh’s Wonderful World runs until Saturday 21th May and tickets are available from the box office on 0113 213 7700.