HAH! BUMHUG is touring
winter 2025!

"Better than Dickens, as good as the Muppets"

After a fantastic run at The Old Library - Into Bodmin, December 2024, we are excited to announce we are bringing Hah Bumhug back to the stage for winter 2025. Bigger and sparklier than before, expect the same Big Tim but now with his friend and fine musician Mr Julian Gaskell!

We all know the classic Dickens tale A Christmas Carol, but did you ever wonder what happened after the ghosts had scarpered?Sure, Scrooge changed his miserly ways, but a certain kid grew up wanting more, more, MORE! Time makes fools of us all and it’s turned Tim (don’t let him catch you calling him Tiny) into a naughty little bad boy; a cunning cat burglar out for his share of Ebenezer’s ill-gotten gains...Not even the Ghost of Christmas Future saw this one coming. Want to hear Tim’s version of the story? Grab your overcoats and top hats and come to see (and possibly get involved in...) HAH BUMHUG; a joyfully interactive, funny, festive Christmas classic, retold in a way you’ve never seen before; full of yuletide laughs bringing together all the family.

Written and performed by Lecoq-trained clown Ethel Darling with live music from Julian Gaskell. As Tim says “God help us! Everyone...”

Directed by Daniel Richards of Owdyado, Miracle Theatre and Near-ta fame.

The Cast of 2025!

Julian Gaskell - Musician

Julian Gaskell is a multi-instrumentalist singer, songwriter, producer, performer, storyteller and van driver.  Described by angry locals as the bastard son of Waits, Strummer, Reinhardt and Rachmaninov, he is a ludicrously self-sabotaging musical talent whose work over the last 20 years has incorporated verbose punk, withering agricultural-folk, european street accordion and skiffled-up boogie-woogie piano protest songs, torch ballads, weeping country laments and straight up rock’n’roll bangers.  He has worked with Bash Street Theatre, I Am Kloot, Icons of Poundland, Rogue Theatre and currently fronts his latest incarnation of 'Julian Gaskell & his Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' on vocals, accordion, and guitar.

Ethel Darling - Big Tim

Ethel grew up in Cornwall, England, surrounded by street performers. Musicians, clowns, puppeteers, circus artists she really is a product of her family.
At age 15, Ethel's uncle took her under his wing and invited her to join his company Bash Street Theatre. Performing with Bash Street opened her eyes to how wonderful life in the arts can be. Specialising in Acrobatics, Ethel received a BTEC & FDA in Contemporary Circus and Physical Theatre, awarded at Circomedia, Bristol and then went on to Paris, training at L'Ecole Jacques Lecoq, the heart of French theatre and comedy. Here she studied how the world moves and fell in love with the simplicity and potential of everyday occurrences. At Lecoq Ethel also learned the importance of precision in theatre.

Ethel's work is influenced by human nature, the instincts to do and say things and to react to the impulses that we are told not to follow. By exposing the naivety that we all have hidden inside, permission is given to make mistakes and find joy from them.