RIDING THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS WITH BILLY HAYES to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut, Aug 3-21

First he wrote the best-selling book. Then came the OSCAR-winning film MIDNIGHT EXPRESS. Now, Billy Hayes comes to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his one-man show RIDING THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS with BILLY HAYES. Live on stage, Hayes will bring his sensational true story of arrest and escape from a Turkish jail to life at new Fringe venue Upstairs@Le Monde from Sunday 3 August 2014.

In his spellbinding and powerful 70 minute show, Billy Hayes reveals never before told aspects of his iconic adventures, elaborates on many instances portrayed in the film version of his story; corrects some of the plot-lines and scenes that were fictionalized for the iconic movie, and gives detailed texture to his dangerous, white-knuckle escape from his Turkish jail, Imrali Prison. There will also be a no-question-unanswered Q&A session with Billy following each performance.

Billy Hayes was a middle class kid of the Sixties, growing up in suburban New York in the era of Free Love, marked by political protests, Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll. Whilst studying journalism at university, he soon realized that the best inspiration for a writer is to experience what he writes about first hand, so he takes the advice of the ultimate guru of the time, Timothy Leary, to "turn on, tune in and drop out". Billy rode motorcycles across Europe and ran with the bulls in Pamplona. And he made a decision that would change his life in ways he never imagined; he began to smuggle hashish from Turkey. In October 1970 Billy was arrested at Istanbul Airport with two kilos of hasish taped to his body, and sentenced by the Turkish court to 30 years in prison. Not exactly the experience he was looking for.

In 1975 Hayes made a brazen, harrowing escape from Imrali Island Prison in the dark of night, by rowing 17 miles across the Sea of Marmara in a raging storm.

On returning home, Billy finally got his chance to become a writer. Hayes' story became an instant legend with the publication of his best-selling book MIDNIGHT EXPRESS in 1976, which was translated and published in 18 languages, and the release of the OSCAR© winning movie of the same title in 1978. Billy Hayes became an iconic figure in American culture and his name became etched in media lore throughout the world.

Hayes has had an extensive career as an actor, director, screenwriter and public speaker and continues to write in a variety of media and formats. In early 2013 Hayes published The Midnight Express Letters: From a Turkish Prison 1970-1975. The third recently released book in his trilogy, Midnight Return, explores his life after prison and the parallel lives of those he left behind. Hayes met his wife, Wendy West, at the Cannes Film Festival when Midnight Express premiered there in 1978. They have been married since 1980 and live in Los Angeles.

For more about the show, visit www.RidingtheMidnightExpress.com.

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