Award-winning theatre group Kingsley Players will be back on stage for four nights, Wednesday, May 16 – Saturday, May 19, with a royal comedy favourite about a village drama group, ‘A Bunch of Amateurs’.

The play, directed by Malcolm Barker, is written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, and was originally conceived as a film, starring Burt Reynolds, Derek Jacobi, Samantha Bond and Imelda Staunton.

It was selected for the Royal Film Performance in November 2008, when the Queen enjoyed it so much she had it shown at that year’s Christmas celebrations in Sandringham.

Nick Newman explains: “As a piece about the redemptive power of theatre, ‘Amateurs’ is perhaps more powerful and appropriate on the stage than on the screen.

“The plot runs on the mixture of simplicity and implausibility that fuels all farce.

“Facing the loss of their community theatre, an amateur dramatic group from the Suffolk village of Stratford St John decides that their only hope is to cast a celebrity in their final production.

“To their astonishment, ageing Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steel accepts the role of King Lear but when he arrives, it turns out that his agent had deceived him into thinking that the play is to be performed by The Royal Shakespeare Company at the home of the Bard.

“Instead Jefferson discovers he will be treading the boards in a farm barn alongside a bunch of amateurs.

“Tantrums, huffs and sexual embarrassments abound, complicated by the arrival of Jefferson’s estranged daughter, Jessica, whose presence provides a Lear style sub-plot and a two-hanky finale.”

Tickets cost £7 and £8.

Book in advance through the website www.kingsleyplayers.co.uk or by ringing the box office on 07724 892154.