THADDEUS Bent kicks off the theatre strand of the 2017 Great Yorkshire Fringe in York with his storytelling shows on July 22 and 23.

In Unlikely Tales with Thaddeus Bent at 1pm each day in The Tea Pot, in Parliament Street, Bent and his long-suffering apprentice present fairy tales and ghost stories, with brave children invited on stage to play audacious heroes, hideous monsters and villainous villains, while parents can snigger at the pop-culture references.

In a second appearance on July 22, Bent advises you to push your shaking hands down the back of the sofa of subconsciousness to bear witness to his show for adults, Fear-tre Of Fear With Thaddeus Bent, at 9.45pm in The Tea Pot, as he shines his torch into "the blackest corners of your soul".

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical will be staged in The White Rose Rotunda spiegeltent on July 25 at 6.30pm and 8.45pm. Winners of the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Best Entertainment and Family Show, the show has enjoyed nine years at the Edinburgh Fringe, a BBC Radio 4 series and a West End run with its blend of comedy, musical theatre and spontaneity.

Fringe theatre legends Sh*t-faced Shakespeare return to the Great Yorkshire Fringe with a new hour-long show for 2017, Romeo And Juliet, in The White Rose Rotunda at 7pm on July 28, 9pm on July 29, 4.30pm on July 30 and 7pm on July 31. What happens? In a nutshell, a single, entirely pie-eyed cast member is hurled at an otherwise entirely serious adaptation of a Shakespearean classic. What could possibly go right?

And The Rope Still Tugging Her Feet, a dark, comic take on a time when “the most dangerous place to be in Ireland is in a woman’s womb”, will be in York for one night only on August 1 in The Tea Pot at 7pm, while The Age of Femin***s has a three-night run from August 1 to 3 in The Tea Pot at 8.30pm. Created and performed by members of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain's first all-female group, this light-hearted commentary on our approaches and responses to female equality movements is set in a dystopian world where a feminist plague has swept the land, resulting in a matriarchal society led by Supreme Ruler Margaret Atwood.

Innovative musical theatre company Actual Size tell the story of Sashka, a troubled boy with seemingly nothing to live for, in The Little Angel in The Tea Pot on August 3 at 3pm and 7pm. His parents are violent, selfish and unsympathetic; no wonder Sashka’s life is spiralling out of control until one profound evening he sees The Little Angel hanging on the Christmas tree, whereupon his life is inexplicably changed forever in Paul Dale-Vickers' adaptation of Leonid Andreyev’s short story, set in Russia at the turn of the 20th century.

The full GYF programme and ticket details can be found at greatyorkshirefringe.com/gyf-2017-brochure-/