Edy Hurst's Tour of the Worlds invades the UK. But still they come

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Tuesday 21st February 2023

Titles tend to be nice and concise nowadays. New TV channels, shops, even Help the Aged went with the sexier Age UK. Your big-stage comedians generally keep it tight too - but the niche ones? Not so much. Today, we're talking:

Edy Hurst's Comedy Version of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of H.G. Wells' Literary Version (Via Orson Welles' Radio Version and Steven Spielberg's Film Version) of The War of the Worlds.

Which is self-explanatory, if nothing else. Hurst's enjoyably lo-fi sci-fi romp enjoyed an eventful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, and is now on tour. In honour of that bold moniker then, we take a deep-dive into his world of discovery. But first, Hurst, what an earth possessed you?

Why a show about War of the Worlds then - a long-term plan or did something spark it?

Despite the idea of an advanced species decimated by something as small and inconspicuous as germs becoming wildly relevant over the course of 2020, I was already working on a War of the Worlds show before this.

Originally, it began as a bit that was cut from my debut show, Hurst Schmurst, where the idea of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds being so specifically titled suggested there were loads of other musical versions of the War of the Worlds that he needed to distinguish himself from.

I discovered the musical version on vinyl, rifling through my parents' records, and that and The New Goodies LP were probably the albums I listened to most, and I think that explains a lot about me as a person and this show. I loved how the musical took a semi-allegorical tale of Victorian Martian invasion and colonial rule and decided to throw in some disco and the lead singer of Thin Lizzy.

It's quite a combo...

It's a real choice. And what a choice! Wall to wall bangers that everyone is playing absolutely straight, and most surprisingly of all it works! It sounds like the sort of thing that would be a cult obscurity, but it's still selling out arena tours and has spawned multiple video games, an audio play and most recently an immersive theatre experience.

My head loves to latch on to these sorts of strange items of pop culture, and JWM VOTWOTW has been in there since I opened up the cover to see the gnarly 70s illustrations on that vinyl sleeve.

Whilst trying to perform Edy Hurst's Comedy Version of JWMVOTWOTW in a small back room of a Manchester pub as part of a larger show, I realised that it might need more space. And at least two more remakes thrown in.

How would you describe the result - what have you achieved here?

It is the show that finally puts to rest all of the countless remakes, reboots, sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs of this 125-year-old science fiction story, The War of the Worlds. At last!

At last, the tale of Martians invading earth (or at least the 75 mile square radial area of London to Woking) is set into a definitive form, never to darken the doorway of humanity's imagination again. And all in under 60 minutes and with only the resources of a children's birthday party.

We've got Martian invaders with big plaster of Paris helmets, the sort of visual graphics you'd expect at a Pink Floyd concert (but using marker pens and a PowerPoint), original songs on a loop pedal that are surprisingly more complicated than you'd expect, and the biggest hoop in the entertainment industry since Porky Pig said 'That's all folks'.

It is largely the result of a man with rampant undiagnosed ADHD being locked at home for two years with a hyper focus on why people keep trying to remake this single story over and over again.

In Edinburgh you were up against a booming drum & bass night downstairs. Was that kind of comparable to humans fighting invading martians?

Now. To many people, a drum and bass show at one of Edinburgh's premier club nights starting 20 minutes into their show might be described as 'a bit of a nightmare', 'A horrendous programming issue' or 'quite a lot'.

However, we all know that the costs of the Fringe are incredibly high for both performers and audiences, and I think that actually my show helped reduce this impact by not only providing a top-quality midnight special style lo-fi sci-fi comedy rock opera, but at the same time some absolutely bangin' D'n'B from the city's top DJs.

And you simply can't argue with value like that. Most audiences didn't even have to pay for tickets to the club night!

It was pretty unique, even for the Fringe.

Doing a big dumb show about War of the Worlds with the thumpin' club underneath was funny in a lot of ways, especially as we didn't have to imagine what it was like for the Martian's machines to cause the ground to shake, because it already was.

The Fringe is a magic place where it's not unexpected to get noise bleed into a venue, admittedly maybe not so much that it feels like your room is shaking, but nevertheless, it's an experience that you won't get elsewhere.

With how full-on and high-energy my show is, I think it became a great way to lean into that even more with audiences, the show itself is already completely ridiculous: what, this man is wearing a full evening tailcoat screaming about Martians not making it up to Birmingham, and Pendulum is hammering through the floorboards? Makes Sense!

How many versions of WOTW have you consumed?

I've lost count of the number of versions. There's been films, radio shows, video games, comics, board games, and that's just the ones that have been professionally published explicitly as War of the Worlds.

Space Invaders, Mars Attacks (the playing cards and film) and even Adam Sandler's Pixels could all arguably be seen as versions of the War of the Worlds. But who likes to argue? And about this? Please.

I remember when I started doing my podcast version I tried to log them all for a deep dive episode, but it became absolutely unmanageable. I counted out how many versions were released last year alone and it was at least 14. That's more than one a month. If War of the Worlds had a patreon, it's a fair amount of content for a subscriber.

At last year's Edinburgh Fringe you could see a live adaptation of the War of the Worlds in the morning, afternoon and then mine in the evening. You could plan out meals based around seeing War of the Worlds.

And what's the weirdest?

Obviously the Orson Welles' radio version and public outcry is weird, as is a disco rock opera of a Victorian invasion of Surrey, but I think there's about two that tie for strangeness.

Firstly, one that came out in America just before the original novel was published stateside. Someone decided to make a pirate version of the novel to try and rush it to the American market before H.G. Wells, and - understanding their audience - changed the setting to Boston.

Just as I was writing this I went on a bit of a tangent and it turns out that the US at this time offered no copyright protection to authors, so it was fairly standard for US writers to rush out pirate versions of books that were popular in other countries.

What's truly weird about this version, though, is that the bootleg War of the Worlds was so popular that it inspired a sequel novel where one of America's favourite inventors goes to Mars to teach them a lesson. It is of course, Thomas Edison, no doubt ready to swipe any and all patents he could when he got there.

Crikey. And the other one?

Secondly, the balls-to-the-wall and very 70s sci-fi comic by the now entertainment powerhouse Marvel. Set in 2018, space hunk Kilraven exists in a post-apocalyptic world where the Martians returned and succeeded in clobbering earth. With a rag tag cast of proto-Mad Max warriors, you better believe he's going to beat the tripods the only way he knows how, with his bare chiselled hands.

War of the Worlds and the Martians have been in a bunch of comics, probably best used in Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (not the film). They've also fought Superman twice, but whereas Superman fighting well known baddies (especially invaders) has at least a vague narrative sense, there's a lot of creative heavy lifting to get the tripods into Marvel.

Mind you, I think this might mean they're part of the MCU, and if anyone at Marvel is after someone with a strange War of the Worlds mind palace, I'm right here.

What's your favourite bit of your show - and which bit gets the biggest response?

I absolutely love performing this whole show. The title is long and ridiculous enough that everyone coming should really know what they're in for, a big stupid celebration of creativity through the lens of Martians invading.

I think the part that gets the best response from audiences generally is when the Martian Emissary arrives to teach them about their new lives as subjects to the Mars empire. I'm trying not to read too much into why folks seem to gravitate towards a fascist ruler that's actively taking public services and freedoms away from them.

I also like at the end when I scream 'Curse these talented hands' and we all laugh because yes, my hands are talented, but what a burden it is to carry these at the end of my wrists.

Any interesting reactions to the show, in Edinburgh and beyond? I imagine WOTW has its die-hard fans?

There's been quite a few! And it's been really nice to see how Jeff Wayne's version is a bit of a shared memory between some families. Being terrified in the back seat on long car journeys with their parents. It's been really lovely to find those people enjoying my show too.

I've also found out that the team at the Immersive Experience are aware of my show, and Jeff regularly visits that to produce it, so the idea of him knowing my work and possibly even seeing it is very surreal.

The audience response to it has been wonderful, some folks in the audience have been headbanging along to songs which in arts centres has been a wild and welcome contrast. People have also asked to try on the Martian helmet afterwards, which raises a lot of questions, given how sweaty I look after popping it off through the show.

What's the next project? Any more high-concept shows in the pipeline?

I'd love to do a radio show or documentary looking at the cultural legacy of the War of the Worlds, some of the stranger adaptations, and why it's persevered in a way so different to many of the other popular Victorian works of fiction. Especially as this year marks the 125th anniversary of the novel being published, after its serialisation in Pearson's Monthly.

If that sounds like something you'd like to see made, why not petition your local audio production company, I'm sure they'd love that.

And is there another show in the works?

I decided for my next project to take a bit of a break from Martians, and so instead I'm working on a show called The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Edy Hurst. It's about me recently discovering an ancestral connection to the Lancashire Witch Trials, and therefore obviously about being a magic being, a being of magic, what it feels like to be 'weird' (and realising that I'm neurodivergent) and also the hit eurodance group the Vengaboys. So keeping it very normal over here as per usual.

I'm really excited to be working with the Lowry as part of their 'Developed with' cohort for the show, especially to think more about the theatricality of the work and bringing a more collaborative approach to creating. Plus it means I can afford props that I don't have to make out of cardboard and sharpies! But that doesn't mean they won't be!

One of the last comedians that the Lowry worked with was the amazing Sophie Willan on her show Branded, so it's both a real honour and nerve-wracking to have been selected.