The thought of invisibility – and the advantages it could bring to someone – is one which has captured the imagination of millions since The Invisible Man was first published.

Produced in the same funny, fast paced style as the hit show The 39 Steps, this new production of the HG Wells’ classic, from Ignition Theatre, has three actors playing all the parts from vicars, to landladies, to tramps, to policemen, to sailors, to scientists, to the Invisible Man himself – as you’ll see (or maybe won’t).

The Invisible Man of the title is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics and invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light and thus he becomes invisible. But having successfully carried out this procedure on himself, he fails in his attempt to reverse it.

H G Well’s novel first appeared in 1897, two years after his first major success The Time Machine. And, although published over a century ago, some of the themes in The Invisible man are surprisingly contemporary. There are references to terrorism and ordinary people seeming to lose control of their money when in the hands of ‘unseen bankers’ for instance.

The novel was adapted into a film in 1933 film directed by James Whale with the leading role played by Claude Rains and used ground-breaking special effects. The film also gave rise to a number of spin-offs offer the years. There is also a new Universal Pictures movie of The Invisible Man, starring Johnny Depp, scheduled for 2018 release. Albeit that this new movie version is about the British nephew of the original Invisible Man (who discovers his uncle's formula for achieving invisibility and is recruited by MI5 during WWII) it is bound to give the title added currency.

The cast of The Invisible Man