IN the function room of the Shakespeare pub, Professor Nother is giving a talk on Shakespeare authorship. The trouble is, he doesn’t believe the man from Stratford wrote those plays.

Here comes Will’s cue to kick the door off the hinges and defend his reputation in Nicholas Collett Productions' Your Bard, a one-man show that visits the York Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow and Saturday. "Come and meet the man himself and take the lid off a legend in your local," says Collett, the show's writer and performer, aided by extra material by Will Shakespeare himself no less.

"Will will tell you all about his family, what it’s like on tour and the glory days at the Globe. Queen Elizabeth I, Christopher Marlowe and Ned Alleyn, you’ll meet them too. Intermingled with a few of his greatest hits and maybe a sonnet or a song," adds Collett. "There’s no fourth wall here; we’re all in this together. Ladies and gentlemen, raise your glasses – Your Bard!"

York Press:

Where there's a Will: Nicholas Collett's Shakespeare. Picture: Peter Mould

Made in Seaside, Florida in January 2016 as part of Escape To Create, Your Bard premiered at Jersey Opera House and formed part of the British Invasion in Kansas City. Directed by Gavin Robertson, the show is touring Britain this autumn before returning to Seaside for an October and November run at the REP Theatre.

Collett was born and bred in Sheffield, graduated from the University of Birmingham and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, since when he has performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican, London, and played Bombur in The Hobbit in the West End and Pod Clock in the national tour of The Borrowers. He has more than 40 credits to his name too in repertory productions at Basingstoke, Ipswich, Jersey, Coventry, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.

Tickets for tomorrow's 7.45pm show and Saturday's 2pm matinee and 7.45pm show cost £14 on 01904 623568 and yorktheatreroyal.co.uk