Posted: Sat 29 Sep, 2007 12:04 pm
Dark, & usually disused at night, this is one of the oldest buildings in the City. Equipped only with an audio guide & a torch, you take part in the most bizarre & beautiful heritage tour you will ever experience. But can you trust the guide? And did he warn you about the ghosts?This tour is designed to show you just how much of the bizarre, mythological, frightening, celebratory history of a whole city can be soaked up into the stones of a single beautiful building. Edgar Allen Poe visited here in the 1830s, & the pendulum of the clock is said to have inspired his story, The Pit & The Pendulum. Did you know that the clock is said to slow down, or speed up, depending on the level of the spiritual well-being of the people of the City? So keep an eye on it. If it is running slow, you need to be worried. Find the garish angel that looks over & after your own ward of the city. AUDIENCES ARE ADVISED TO DRESS WARMLY.Hear the story of Big Billy Bradley, a magnificent 7’9” tall, who was employed to put the angels in their place due to his immense height. Hear about his legendary drinking competitions with the murderous George, the Hungarian Clown. Owing to his vast size, Billy normally won with ease, though one night George decided he would garner his revenge & spiked Billy’s drink with a particularly noxious narcotic prepared for him by a fortune teller. Billy fell from the high-wire, which he had climbed wearing only a tutu, & broke his wrist. Billy & George never spoke again. Unfortunately, it would also take Billy more food to satisfy his immense stomach than he could ever afford to buy, & despite the generosity of a butcher from Horsforth, who would supply him with off-cuts of meat that would otherwise of gone to waste, he died, unfulfilled, in his mid-thirties.We know that our Dear Readers of Secret Leeds understand that every brick & stone of the City is soaked with a thousand stories. Smoke&Mirrors, brought to you by Leeds Civic Trust, will prove this to you beyond any reasonable human doubt.Originally created for Light Night 2006, Smoke & Mirrors was a series of performance installations giving an unconventional look at urban Leeds. It was created by Imprint Theatre Company in collaboration with visual artist Heather Jones, sound designer Joff Williams, and film-maker Matt Tullet.Due to popular demand, Smoke & Mirrors is back for more!THURSDAY 25TH – SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER 2007, 7 – 11.30PM. Turn up at any time. The tour lasts around 25 minutes.The opening of the installation has been made possible with the support of Leeds Civic Trust and arts@leeds. Photo of a ghost on a ghost-tour, by Andy Paraskos.