There are several things that theatre company imitating the dog does not lack: innovation, bravery, boundary stretching notions of what theatre can be - and directors.

Unusually, the Leeds-based company, which has been making work for more than a quarter of a century, has three artistic directors at its helm in Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright.

So why on earth bring in a new director for the company’s latest show when they already have an embarrassment of riches? When you meet him though, it quickly becomes obvious that Tyrone Huggins is the perfect person to direct the company’s latest show.

“I know Pete and Andrew from years back, I co-founded a company with Pete Brooks called Impact Theatre in Leeds and I also did some set building work for Andrew in Leeds,” says Huggins, a highly regarded actor, writer and director.

“When they started working on their new show, they felt they needed an outside director and in particular a Black director and they say they thought of me immediately. I’ve just finished a three-year associate director role at Forced Entertainment in Sheffield and I’ve seen a lot of imitating the dog’s work so I seemed like a good fit. I’ve also got reasonable experience of going into a company of established artists and not frightening them too much.” 

The new show, which opens in the Courtyard Theatre at Leeds Playhouse on 14-15 February, is typically fascinating fare from a company that has a knack for telling stories that can’t help but intrigue an audience.

All Blood Runs Red tells the extraordinary true story of Eugene Bullard. One of the first African-American military fighter pilots, he served with the French Flying Corps and was one of only a handful of Black fighter pilots to fight in the First World War. He went on to serve in the Second World War, spying against Hitler’s regime. His eclectic CV also reveals that Bullard was a circus entertainer, boxer, nightclub owner, jazz drummer and civil rights activist.

Regular imitating the dog collaborator Morgan Bailey, who has appeared in a number of their shows including Heart of Darkness and Night of the Living Dead – Remix, first came across the story of Bullard when he was cast as an American GI in a film being shot in France.

“I think there were moments during the filming when it became clear that the filmmakers didn’t have a perspective on the way Morgan saw himself as a Black actor. And some of these moments thread their way through this piece,” says Huggins. “It was during the publicity period of the movie that Morgan met Pete and Andrew in Paris and they talked about Eugene Bullard and his experience some hundred years earlier in that city. These strands form the basis of All Blood Runs Red: Bullard’s autobiography, Morgan’s experience of making a film in France and the lunch in Paris where the discussion takes place.”

Since its inception, imitating the dog has blended technology, digital creativity and sound design with theatre to push, poke and provoke, examining what theatre can be and what theatre is for.

Huggins says: “I’m really excited every time I go into the room. Some of what the company does is theatre that I haven’t experienced making before, so I’m mystified by some of it. Having said that, I have created work using digital technology before. I wrote my first digital play, Sounds in Session, in 1994. It was three characters in an old recording studio trying to create a piece of music, looking at whether the creativity came from the people or the technology. It was written as a 12-track album with a projection screen showing a promo video of the song that the computer made them make.”

If you’ve been paying attention to imitating the dog, and it’s been increasingly difficult to miss them in recent years, you’ll know that’s exactly the kind of technological theatre the company has been exploring and crafting. If Huggins did this in 1994, does that mean he’s essentially been waiting 30 years for this opportunity?

“It does feel like a match made in heaven,” he says. “They say they trust me, so we’ll see what happens when we all work together.”

Photograph: Ed Waring