HG Wells’s 1897 science fiction novella The Invisible Man told the story of Griffin, a scientist who manages to make himself invisible and then cannot make himself visible again.

This festive season the Menier Chocolate Factory turns Wells’s story into a music hall romp for all the family. Special effects from illusionist Paul Kieve and tongue-in-cheek humour combine to tell the story of the ‘ideous ‘appenings that shook the bucolic village of Iping when the sinister Griffin arrived, wrapped in bandages and with a distinctly unsociable manner.

The Invisible Man is directed by Ian Talbot, the former Artistic Director of the Open Air theatre.

Among the high-profile cast is multi-Laurence Olivier Award-winning actress Maria Friedman, who returns to the Chocolate Factory where she previously presented her solo show Rearranged. Her work includes West End productions of Passion, Sunday In The Park With George, The Woman In White, The King And I at the Royal Albert Hall and Sweeney Todd.

She is joined in The Invisible Man by actor and former children’s television presenter Gary Wilmot, television star Natalie Casey and Jo Stone-Fewings, who appeared in the West End production of The 39 Steps.