There’s hardly time to draw breath for the hard-working team staging black comedy king Joe Orton’s final play at Stevenage’s Gordon Craig Theatre next week.

What The Butler Saw is full of the 1960s wunderkind’s trademark farce and fulmination, with all sorts of attempted seduction, blackmail and confusion underscored with anti-establishment satire.

Familiar TV faces including Jenny Funnell (As Time Goes BY) and Marcus Hutton (Brookside) are helping to bring it to the stage in the Talking Scarlet production.

They’ll be taking their bows in Basingstoke on Saturday night before heading up the A1 for curtain up on Monday. Further 7.45pm performances follow on Tuesday and Wednesday night before the company ups sticks and heads off to Wales for another three-day stint in Mold.

Call 01438 363200 or visit www.gordon-craig.co.uk for box office details.