AN ARTIST is returning to their home town to put on a thrilling pay-what-you-feel show, opening up theatre to those who otherwise may not afford it.

Stockton’s Umar Butt returns to ARC, Stockton Arts Centre, on Wednesday 4 March in Third Angel’s drama The Department of Distractions.

Mr Butt is originally from Glasgow but has adopted Stockton as his home for the past few years, producing popular shows for ARC during that time.

The play is set inside a secretive organisation that distracts the audiences, creating an investigatory feel and promising a thrilling mystery.

Third Angel, the company behind the show, will be joined by Mr Butt for Stockton audiences. He has previously written, directed, and starred in work that has been performed the venue, including tales of his own grandmother’s story of surviving the partition of India and Pakistan, and an all-singing and dancing production about two friends trying to make it big in Bollywood.

The new show is based around a department, though audiences do not know if this is governmental or otherwise, whose role it is to distract people from every day life after creators became aware of the number of distractions there are.

"It could've easily been them," writer Alexander Kelly, told a podcast.

The Department of Distractions will be at ARC on Wednesday, March 4 at 7pm, as part of the show's national tour.