SAINT John’s Players say they feel "very privileged" to be one of the first amateur companies in the UK to have permission to stage the smash hit comedy, "One Man Two Guvnors".

The play, by Richard Bean, was originally performed at the National Theatre in 2011.

It then moved to the West End where it won the Evening Standard Best Play Award.

A spokesman said: "Based on a seventeenth century Italian play, The Servant of Two Masters, by Carlo Goldoni, Richard Bean’s English version is set in the criminal underworld of 1960’s Brighton.

"Francis Henshall, a somewhat bumbling out of work musician, finds himself working as minder to local gangster Roscoe Crabbe and also to upper class criminal Stanley Stubbers. But Roscoe is dead, killed by Stanley Stubbers and being impersonated by his sister Rachel."

The spokesman added: "To confuse things further Rachel is actually Stanley’s girlfriend, and Francis still thinks she is Roscoe. Keeping the two guvnors from meeting, and of course pocketing two pay packets requires a great deal of ingenuity.

"The play is peopled by a wonderful set of characters from the criminal fraternity; Charlie, the duck, Clench, his brainless daughter Pauline, her actor boyfriend Alan and his father Harry, a dodgy solicitor, not to mention Dolly the book keeper and Lloyd – an old Parkhurst friend of Charlies.

"The pace is fast and furious, full of satire, slapstick and marvellous one-liners."

One Man Two Guvnors will be performed at The Swan Theatre, Worcester from Tuesday, October 11 until Saturday, October 15 at 7.30pm each evening.

Tickets are available from 01905 611427.