WELSH storyteller Shon Dale-Jones comes to Portland’s Royal Manor Theatre on Thursday 12th March with his Edinburgh Fringe First award-winning show, The Duke, for the first of three dates with Artsreach.

He will also be telling the tragi-comic tale of a family heirloom at West Stafford village hall on Friday 13th and Burton Bradstock hall on Saturday 14th.

Weaving together the heirloom, the quandary of a scriptwriter stretching his integrity and an unfolding disaster as thousands of children flee their homes, this one-man show blends fantasy and reality in a playful, thought-provoking show that explores what truly matters in a world of crisis.

Funny, poignant and inventive, The Duke received The Scotsman’s Fringe First Award when it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016 and was made into a radio play for BBC Radio 4 in 2018.

Storyteller and actor Shon explains the background: “In 1974 my father invested £750 (£9,800 in today’s money) in a Royal Worcester porcelain figure of The Duke of Wellington on horseback – made to celebrate his victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. He kept the figure we affectionately called The Duke, wrapped in sponge, in a big box, under his bed.

“After he died in 2001, my mother decided to take the figure out and display it on the table in the bay window. Since 2005 I’ve been working on a film script, which is in the very final stages of development. In the spring of 2024 I sit at my desk waiting for an email that will tell me what I need to do to the script to get it onto the screen. I turn the radio on. I listen to a report about the refugee crisis. My mother calls. She tells me she’s broken The Duke. My mother, my film script and the refugee crisis all need my attention.”

Originally created by Shôn in 2016 in response to the refugee crisis that exploded following the Syrian conflict, The Duke was re-written and revived in 2025 as the refugee crisis became more extreme following increasing conflicts and disasters around the world

Other regional dates are in Somerset, on Saturday 15th March at the Kindness Festival at Frome’s Rook Lane chapel and Friday 28th at Valley Arts at Chew Stoke village hall.