Part biography, part performance text, and part circus-history commentary, Audacious Mr. Astley presents the fully annotated script of Chris Barltrop's acclaimed one-man play about Philip Astley, the eighteenth-century horseman and showman widely regarded as the father of the modern circus. Astley and his wife, Patty, transformed displays of equestrian skill into a new form of popular entertainment, adding other performers and taking their shows throughout Britain and Europe. Barltrop allows Astley to tell the story dramatically while surrounding the script with historical annotation that separates evidence from the mythology that accumulated around his career. The result is an accessible piece of living history: entertaining enough to read as theatre, yet detailed enough to appeal to students and collectors of circus history. The original stage production earned five-star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and subsequently appeared at theatres, museums, festivals, and educational venues.