ALAN Ayckbourn’s 82nd play, Better Off Dead, completes the summer season at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre in a production run from September 6, directed by the playwright himself.

Larger than life and highly irascible author Algy Waterbridge is hard at work on his 33rd crime novel featuring blunt Yorkshire cop DCI Tommy Middlebrass.

Tommy has not been on the TV for a while, however, and Algy's wife is becoming frighteningly forgetful, while his adoring personal assistant sometimes oversteps the mark. It is almost the last straw when an old acquaintance, journalist Gus Crewe, turns up to interview him, with alarming consequences.

"As Algy’s fictional characters take him over and real people introduce themselves into the dramatic climax of his novel, lines become blurred and it might just be that fiction, misunderstandings and mistaken identity are closer to the truth than they might seem," says Ayckbourn.

Christopher Godwin plays Algy Waterbridge, having created many leading roles in Ayckbourn premieres over the years, such as Ronald Brewster-Wright in Absurd Person Singular, Norman in The Norman Conquests and Dennis in Just Between Ourselves.

Joining him in Ayckbourn's cast of seven will be Eileen Battye, Russell Dixon, Liz Jadav, Laurence Pears, Naomi Petersen and Leigh Symonds, after his stand-out turn as highly competitive Finnish businessman Sven in Ayckbourn's 40th anniversary revival of Joking Apart at the SJT this summer.

Writer-director Ayckbourn leads a production team featuring designer Michael Holt, lighting designer Jason Taylor and associate sound designer Paul Stear.

Better Off Dead can be seen in the Round at the SJT, in rep, from tonight to October 6. Tickets are on sale on 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

See What's On in The Press in the week beginning September 10 for Charles Hutchinson's interview with Alan Ayckbourn on writers, life, death and the after-death and remembering all your plots and character names from 82 plays.