Time is right for Robert’s return to town
FOR Southport-born performer Robert Lloyd Parry, a love for the theatre began while working behind the bar at the town’s art centre.
Years later, he is to return to the venue, which has since been redeveloped as the Atkinson, to perform his latest show.
Robert will star in a one-man adaptation of the classic H G Wells story The Time Machine this month, produced by the acclaimed Nunkie Theatre Company.
It will take place at the Lord Street venue where he first had the idea of getting on stage.
He said: “I worked behind the bar at the Art Centre. I remember once, in the late 1980s, a girl performing a tribute to the late Bob Dylan, I enjoyed that so much and thought, ‘What a way to make a living, travelling around telling stories and entertaining,’. That’s where it all started really.”
The writer and performer – who describes himself as a Victorian genre fan – lived in Southport before moving to Hull for university and then heading further south.
The town has stayed close to his heart, with many of his family still living here.
The concept of adapting stories into one-man shows is nothing new to Robert, having previously adapted the ghost stories of M R James. While it may seem a challenging format into which to adapt a book, it is one which often allows a more personal way of storytelling.
“It’s a one-man show based on H G Wells’s 1895 novella, The Time Machine. It’s about a man who travels 800,000 years in the future and meets two civilisations, one of which cannibalises the other. What people can expect is is a thrilling and entertaining show.
“I find the process rather time-consuming rather than difficult. It’s a fantastic narrative and it’s mostly written in the first person.
“What you’ll get is a person on a stage telling a story, a format as old as time.
The Time Machine: An Invention was first published in 1895 when Wells was 28, the first of his great “scientific romances”. It was followed in subsequent years by The Island Of Dr Moreau, War Of The Worlds, The Invisible Man and The First Men In The Moon.
The story has stayed in the public’s mind thanks to two film adaptations, though Robert argues that neither version is an accurate representation of the origial work, something his show aims to improve upon.
The Time Machine is at the Atkinson at 7.30pm on Saturday, September 17. Tickets are £12 for adults and £10 for concessions.
What a way to make a living!
ROBERT LLOYD PARRY