Troupers

Award-winning poet and former Coronation Street and comedy writer Keith Hutson presents Troupers, a celebration of the Music Hall artistes, the routines that made a nation love them, and the tough, strange, remarkable lives they led.

Keith pays tribute to not only legendary performers like Vesta Tilly, Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Little Titch, but also those now forgotten figures who graced the nation’s. Empires, Grands and Hippodromes.

Through poetry, patter, anecdote and stand-up, Keith will regale you with tales of Rosa Richter, the original human cannonball; JH Walter, the contortionist who couldn’t make ends meet; Joan Rhodes, waif-like strongwoman; Nervo and Knox, slow-motion wrestlers; Giovanni Succi The Fasting Man; Lottie Collins, who danced herself to death, and many many more.

What made Billy Bennet’s Fish Fryer’s act so hilarious? Was George Formby Snr more beloved than his son? What did Harry Norton The Human Hydrant do? Why did William Paul form the worst troupe in theatre history? Do come and hear about these fascinating, flawed, inspirational characters in this hour-long extravaganza!