N the sprawling urban slums of the South Wales docklands at the turn of the last century, a boy who idolises Harry Houdini commits himself to a life of magic, but the harsh reality of working-class life in Edwardian Britain stands in the way.

So begins A Regular Little Houdini, a coming-of-age story written and performed by Daniel Llewelyn-Williams, on tour at The Studio, York Theatre Royal on Tuesday night.

Directed by Joshua Richards for Flying Bridge Theatre, the play depicts how a tenacious dreamer trains himself to emulate his hero’s escapology among the mud and rust of his industrial surroundings, charming hard-working realists around him but putting himself and others in danger as he becomes more detached from reality.

His parents struggle to come to terms with their son’s eccentricity; in turn the boy struggles in the mud and the filth both to achieve his dream of becoming an escapologist and to survive in a ruthless Edwardian dock town.

As he grows, the boy finds himself an integral part of the most terrifying events of British industrial history and his personal journey even intersects with the world’s greatest showman himself, Houdini. The connection will influence them both until the end of their days.

Aided by his hero’s guidance, he battles against the irrepressible tide of responsibility to balance childhood folly and humanity with the cynicism of adulthood.

"This story of youthful imagination and joie de vivre has a very real vein of jeopardy brought about by the harsh realities of working-class industrial daily life," says Llewelyn-Williams. "It's a beautiful tale of hope and magic inspired by my own family stories and, of course, the real-life visits of Houdini to Newport."

Houdini twice came to working-class, industrial Wales, in 1905 and 1913, both times to start his European tours. In particular, he had an affiliation with the town of Newport. Being the product of an immigrant Hungarian Jewish family, growing up in the melting pot of New York, he recognised the similarity of the immigrant industrial areas. Newport's Pill, the dock town, being an international melting pot too.

In the United States, Houdini's audiences were strongest in these industrial areas because he epitomised the "young immigrant success story". "He chose Newport as his springboard into Europe, as, at the time, it was a buzzing industrial hub," says Llewelyn-Williams.

"As it happens, his publicity stunts involving Newport police, their cells and a public jump off Newport Bridge, landed him on the front page of the national newspapers. Just the ticket for a master of self publicity."

Llewelyn-Williams, at present playing Dr Rhys Thomas in the BBC1 soap opera EastEnders, comes from a family of dockers from Pill in Newport. He also comes from a long line of great storytellers, one granddad a docker, the other a policeman.

"It's their true stories, plus other family yarns of the dockside, plus Houdini's escapades, plus the Newport Docks disaster of 1909, plus the building of the Transporter Bridge in 1906, plus his story of becoming an entertainer, which all come together to create this fabricated tale," says Llewelyn-Williams.

"It's a story of a young boy with an irrepressible spirit who fights all the odds to break the mould and 'escape' the drudgery of his perilous surroundings while keeping respect for his roots.

"The whole story is told through the eyes of a dreamer, a boy whose imagination knows no bounds, as his mix of adventure and real history blurs with tales of cyclopes and feats of derring-do."

Tickets for Tuesday's 7.45pm show are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk