Murray Lachlan Young will be bringing his hilarious family theatre show and Virtual Reality experience, The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps, to the Borough Theatre in Abergavenny this weekend.

The celebrated writer, broadcaster and BBC 6 Music ‘Poet in Residence’ kicked-off the tour at the historic Wilton’s Music Hall in London last month. Since then, the show has been visiting venues across the UK. Abergavenny audiences can see the show at the Borough Theatre on Saturday 9th November at 7pm.

The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps is a theatrical treat perfect for lovers of Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket and The Brothers Grimm. Taking the form of a funny and wildly entertaining epic-poem, Lachlan Young uses music, inventive costume, quirky staging and the invaluable support of fellow performer Joe Allen to tell the spell-binding story of the show’s young hero, Crispin de Quincy de Faversham Clumps.

Like many great characters of children’s fiction, Crispin is an orphan. Following a classic and dramatic case of parental death, the poor seven-year-old finds himself at a windswept double funeral. On the bright side, he is also the sole inheritor of Raddlesham Mumps, his magnificent ancestral home. Left alone in the huge house, with only Kenilworth the sinister butler for company, events take an amusingly gothic turn. The butler begins to regale Crispin with tales of the bizarre and often hilarious deaths of his deeply eccentric ancestors, and the story takes flight on darkly comic wings.

The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps went down a storm with audiences young and old and received critical acclaim when it toured the UK earlier this year. Mixing compelling storytelling with a brilliant musical score, by award-winning Arun Ghosh, the show has oodles of theatricality and shed loads of silliness.  

Acclaimed children’s writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen described the show as “a fearsome but funny gothic tale of dynasty, death, revenge and hope…fantastic word-play, lovely moral.”

Whilst comedian Marcus Brigstocke said; “Just seen the beautifully staged Raddlesham Mumps with Joe Allen being utterly brilliant and the fiercely clever Murray Lachlan Young delivering in fine style.’’

Murray Lachlan Young puts his writing style down to his parents who brought him up on an eclectic diet of literary influences. Murray says; “As a child I was fortunate enough to be told stories by both my mother and father. My Dad’s stories were sweeping and epic whilst my mum’s were cosier and full of detail.  I was also read quite a lot of verse by my mother: Hilaire Belloc, Doctor Heinrich Hoffmann, Edward Lear. But at the same time, I was also listening to their record collection.  Everything from The Beatles’ White Album to Johnny Cash, early Bob Dylan and onto Gilbert and Sullivan and the brilliant 1941 recording of Peter and the Wolf, scored by Prokofiev with narration by Basil Rathbone.  The thing that brought all these influences together was that they were stories, told by people with unique voices.  I was utterly fascinated by it all and wanted to be one of those people.”

The show, which is directed by Nina Hajiyianni with set and costume design by Bek Palmer, is an adaptation of Murray’s book of the same name, which tells the cautionary tale in cleverly rhyming couplets. A CD of The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps has also been released and a unique Virtual Reality (VR) game has also been created which will be available for audiences to experience via headsets in theatre foyers as part of this Autumn’s tour.