NEWPORT-BORN playwright and West End actor Daniel Llewelyn-Williams returns home this month with a one-man show drawing on the true story of the great llusionist Harry Houdini’s visits to the city.

He is the sole writer, producer and performer of his new play, A Regular Little Houdini, which is set in the heart of Pillgwenlly.

Mr Llewelyn-Williams, who played Robin Hood in 2012’s Riverfront pantomime, said: “I’ve wanted to write a play about Newport for years. My dad’s family are all from Pill and I’ve grown up around the stories of the docks.”

The play, which is his first, is set in the docks between 1905 and 1913; the two occasions that Houdini visited Newport.

“He was a PR Genius,” said Mr Llewelyn-Williams, who plays all seven characters in the play. “He got himself deliberately arrested and locked in a cell in Pill police station and when he managed to break free the reporters were all there waiting.

The production comes to the city’s The Riverfront theatre on January 23-25 with fiddle player Meg Cox, of St Julian’s, will be performing the music. Tickets start at £8.