GUNPOWDER, treason, plot - and lashings of comedy.

That's what a new play about Guy Fawkes coming to the Theatre Royal later this year (just in time for November 5, naturally) is promising.

The theatre has described The Tragedy of Guy Fawkes, penned by York-born playwright David Reed, as a case of 'Monty Python meets Blackadder'.

"A war-weary Guy Fawkes is plotting a revolution in a cramped room above a pub," a theatre spokesman said. "Facing bickering, backstabbing and ineptitude at every turn, it’s hardly surprising that Guy soon loses the plot."

Playwright Reed is part of the multi-award winning The Penny Dreadfuls comedy team as well as a comedy performer and writer in his own right.

He said of his new play: “I’ve long been fascinated by Guy Fawkes.

"His designs were diabolical, his end tragic, and yet there’s something very funny about a man whose failures are, 400 years later, still celebrated with fireworks and toffee apples. The state of that. The shame of it! In a daft way, I feel sorry for him.”

The Tragedy of Guy Fawkes is part of the soon-to-be-announced Rumours and Rebels summer/autumn season at York Theatre Royal.

It will run from October 28 to November 12. Tickets go on sale to York Theatre Royal members from April 4, and on general sale from April 9.