A COMEDY 17th Century play by a friend and collaborator of Shakespeare is being staged at a North-East theatre this week.

Thomas Middleston was a contemporary of the Bard and worked with him on two of his tragedies – The Changeling and Women Beware Women.

Middleton also created an array of witty and entertaining works of his own, largely comedies set in early Jacobean London.

His works explore with relish a cutthroat urban world, where the "best art" of the inhabitants is "to dissemble well".

A Mad World, My Masters – which is on at Darlington Civic Theatre until Saturday (April 18) – is one of the most inventive of these London comedies.

The Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play takes its audience on a ride through a series of plots and counter-plots, with surprises around every corner.

The action weaves together two contrasted stories of trickery and deceit – one involving money, the other adultery.

Director Sean Foley has updated the action to take place in 1950s Soho, where the posh mix with musicians and and a dashingly penniless bachelor, in need of quick cash and a good time, finds he has to live on his wits.

The cast includes Joe Bannister, Ellie Beavan, Ben Deery, Dennis Herdman, Ian Redford and Sarah Ridgeway.

Tickets, which include a £1 restoration levy, are priced from £17.40.

It is recommended that audience members are aged 12 and upwards.

To book, call the box office on 01325-486555 or visit darlingtoncivic.co.uk