PREVIEW: Dandy Dick at the Theatre Royal, Brighton

The comedy by Arthur Wing Pinero will run until Saturday, July 7.

The play, which marks the launch of Theatre Royal Brighton Productions, will then tour to eight regional UK venues before a London run.

Dandy Dick will be directed by Christopher Luscombe, artistic director of Theatre Royal Brighton Productions, and kicks off the first of many planned classic plays to tour the country’s best playhouses nationwide before the West End.

Christopher said: “We’re thrilled to be staging Dandy Dick, a glorious British comedy written 125 years ago in Brighton, as the first production for Theatre Royal Brighton Productions’ opening season.

“It is a rarely seen treasure that so richly deserves to be enjoyed by modern audiences in search of quality and entertainment in an evening out at the theatre.”

Written in Brighton in 1887, Dandy Dick tells the hilarious story of the Very Reverend Augustin Jedd, a pillar of Victorian respectability, who preaches regularly against the evils of horseracing and gambling.

However, a visit from his tearaway sister, Georgiana, leads him to risk all at the races, much against his better judgement. Mayhem ensues, with romantic intrigue, mistaken identity and a runaway horse.

Olivier Award-winner Patricia Hodge, whose career spans film (Betrayal, Behind Enemy Lines), theatre (Noises Off, Calendar Girls) and television (a BAFTA nomination for Hotel du Lac, The Falklands Play and Miranda), will play Georgiana. Nicholas Le Prevost, whose distinguished stage career includes many productions at the National Theatre, including My Fair Lady, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award, and, most recently, The Misanthrope with Keira Knightley in the West End, will star as the Dean.

This classic British comedy saw its last major production in 1987 in a national tour starring Sir Anthony Quayle and Margaret Courtenay, and the play last appeared in the West End in 1973 starring Alastair Sim and Patricia Routledge.

Tickets cost £15 - £29.50. To book, call 0844 871 7650 (booking fee) or visit [http://www.atgtickets.com/brighton| www.atgtickets.com/brighton}