The Umbrella Man & Other Stories

A one-man storytelling show by Martin Fitzgerald, drawn from the author's book of the same name, that follows the bystanders present at the JFK assassination in Dealey Plaza in 1963. Staged at The Old Woollen in Leeds.

The Umbrella Man and Other Stories is a one-man storytelling show by Martin Fitzgerald, based on Fitzgerald's book of the same name. Rather than dwelling on who was responsible and why, it turns to the ordinary people caught up in the Kennedy assassination, the few seconds that drew more scrutiny than any other moment of the twentieth century.

Fitzgerald leads the audience through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, back to 1963, and invites them to step into the position of those present that day. The stories include a man with an umbrella in bright sunshine, a dressmaker who suffers from vertigo, a woman holding a Polaroid camera, the figure known as the Babushka Lady, and three men who were arrested soon after the shooting.

The performance combines humour, careful research and storytelling, and is pitched at newcomers as well as at those who already know the subject well. It draws on a book that was a Radio 4 Pick of the Week, and it has previously been staged at the Edinburgh Fringe before this visit to Leeds.