A strange trip through tunnels of mind

There's drama with a gothic twist in Barnsley this month, with a play that looks at a '¨real local aristocrat who had a deep scientific curiosity.

The Underground Man takes a fictionalised look at William John Cavendish Scott-Bentinck, the 5th Duke of Portland, an eccentric English aristocrat whose imagination and curiosity knew no bounds.

In the play, this deceptively simple man struggles to come to terms with a world that is teeming with new knowledge, ill-founded opinion and gossip.

Why does he hide himself away? What is his fascination with tunnels?

And will he ever unearth the secrets hidden in his memory?

In a sequence of events that are often bizarre and frequently hilarious, he reveals some moments of often surprising perception and wisdom.

Adapted by Nick Wood from Mick Jackson’s Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, this innovative performance features live music and a specially-commissioned score.

The real-life duke lived on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire and died in December 1879.

Rumours abounded about his possible madness or disfigurement when he became a recluse.

Among the legacies he left on the estate was an amazing network of underground tunnels.

The estate’s Harley Gallery, which hosts many art exhibitions, is based in part in an old gasworks that once powered thousands of lamps that lit up the tunnels.

Using Victorian engineerign techniques, the duke employed up to 1,000 Irish workmen, using their experience in railway building, to construct 2.5 miles of tunnels, some large enough to pass two carriages side by side.