Jimi Hendrix. Kurt Cobain. Amy Winehouse. All sadly members of the infamous 27 Club. In July 2018, two months shy of his 28th birthday, Callum Hughes was nearly added to that list.
Join the acclaimed writer and performer as he takes you on a journey from a small Oxfordshire town to the bright lights of the Big Smoke as he attempts to discover who he is without looking through the bottom of the bottle.
Featuring music original and familiar, Thirst is both a love letter to sobriety and a celebration of all things alcoholic.
This debut solo show from actor and writer Callum Hughes (One Man Two Guvnors, Godspell) charts the true story of his journey through addiction, recovery, sobriety and ultimately… acceptance.
Thirst is also a joyous and uproarious look at life, family, theatre, religion and most importantly, the positivity of the pub.
So pull up a barstool, order Callum a 0% lager and listen to his incredible story...
Biography:
Callum trained at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, Stephen F Austin State University, Texas and Goldsmith’s University of London. He has been making theatre as an actor, writer and musician for over a decade in a variety of genres including musical theatre, live/performance art, immersive theatre, site specific theatre, folk/story-telling, classical texts, film and television.
Callum was a long-time member of Bob Carlton's award-winning ensemble of actor-musicians where he performed in countless productions including Godspell, The Great Gatsby, As You Like It, Treasure Island and Return to the Forbidden Planet. Since then Callum has performed in UK No1 tours, at fringe festivals, in films and and commercials and regularly records audiobooks as a narrator.
Callum is also a writer and, with his writing partner David Shopland, has seen multiple musicals produced professionally since 2009 in a variety of venues in London, Texas, Aberdeen, Bristol and even the National Theatre of China. Shopland and Hughes' musical Living Out Loud was live-streamed to over 250,000 people in 2018. They have also written pop songs for former Only Men Aloud star Ross Leadbeater and were comissioned to write the official anthem for the 2017 BRICS conference.
Callum has also composed the music for more than 10 different productions including Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, The Fir Tree, Into Thin Air, Slasher, Drive Your Road and Furious: the battle of '72 to name a few.
Plays:
Fast and Slow (2022, Immersive/Site Specific, Bath Fringe Festival)
The Hound of The Norwoods (2019, South Norwood Sherlock Holmes Festival)
Aesthetics (2019 Immersive/Site Specific, Bath Fringe Festival)
How Soon Is Now (2017 Immersive/Site Specific, Bath Fringe Festival)
Dracula (2016 Immersive/Site Specific, Preston Manor, Brighton)
Drive Thru Eucharist (2016 Immersive/Site Specfic, Bath Fringe Festival)
Into Thin Air (2015 Space Arts Centre, 2016 Hounslow Arts Centre)
Prologue (2019 Immersive/Site Specific, Bath Fringe Festival)
A Silent Mouth (2011 Barn Theatre Sidcup, 2014 Lunchbox Theatre Aberdeen, 2015 Alma Theatre Bristol)
Coffee and John (2010 Downstage Theatre, Texas)
Musicals:
An Evening of Shopland & Hughes (2021, The Phoenix Arts Club)
First Spirit (2019, Foshan, China)
Living Out Loud (2018 Fuqing, China)
Lessons Learned (2017 National Theatre of China, Beijing)
The Little Mermaid (2013 – 2014 Riverside Studios)
Cinderella: The Anti Panto (2012 – 2013 Leicester Square Theatre)
A Life in Monochrome (2012 Space Arts Centre)
Original Songs:
Express Delivery (commissioned by Ross Leadbeater for 2019 EP)
Let Me In (commissioned by Ross Leadbeater for 2019 EP)
Soho Nights (commissioned by Ross Leadbeater for 2019 EP)
Hands Across The World (song commissioned for 2017 International trade conference theme)
Fake Escape was founded in 2013 and has since been committed to spearheading exciting new artistic projects that not only entertain and engage audiences, but open a dialogue with a new generation of theatregoers and theatremakers alike.
Fake Escape has seen over a dozen productions in the last nine years, including productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London, Paris and across the country.
Fake Escape has been nominated for multiple OffWestEnd Awards and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Off West End Production in 2021 for SAVING BRITNEY, which went on to tour the UK extensively and transferred Off Broadway to New York's SoHo Playhouse in July 2022
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