MATTHEW Zajac’s multi-award-winning play from Dogstar Theatre comes to Helmsley Arts Centre as part of its first UK tour.

This extraordinary play, which originally opened at Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms in 2008 and was an instant hit, has since been performed worldwide from Australia to New York and played more than 250 times in 10 countries.

Directed by acclaimed Grid Iron director Ben Harrison, with a score from two of Scotland’s finest traditional fiddlers, Jonny Hardie and Gavin Marwick, awards for the production included The Stage Award for Best Solo Performer 2008, Scotsman Fringe First, Holden Street Theatres Award and CATS Award Best Actor 2009.

Inspired by the life of Matthew’s father, it is the story of a boy who grew up on a farm in Galicia, Eastern Poland, now Western Ukraine, and became a tailor in Inverness, of how a life and an identity can be reconstructed. The tailor’s life spanned most of the 20th century, and the journey he took was made by thousands of Poles during the Second World War. His was a forced migration, subject to the brutal vagaries of war. Before settling in Scotland, he travelled and fought throughout Europe, the Soviet Union, the Middle East and England.

In a new country, he became a new man and integrated himself into the fabric of Highland life. He made clothes for thousands of people, including Matthew, constructing the outward trappings which play a part in defining who we are. This man’s story is not straightforward. He was one of millions whose fate was determined by massive upheavals over which he had no control. But was he really who he said he was?

This production tells the story of the tailor’s life and his son’s relationship to it through music, poetry, theatrical imagery, storytelling, moving and still video projections, costume and choreography.

The Tailor of Inverness is at Helmsley Arts Centre on Friday at 7.30pm. To book, phone 01439 771 7000 or go to helmsleyartscentre.co.uk