MALVERN Theatre Players, the resident amateur company, is holding auditions for its latest production next week.

The group is putting on The Philanthropist, a modern comedy from the pen of Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar for his adaptation of the film Dangerous Liaisons.

This Tony Award-winning play, first performed in 1970 at the Royal Court Theatre, is set in a university don's room, where a tale of misunderstanding and double-dealing unfolds over the course of a dinner party and the subsequent morning.

The Philanthropist will be performed in the Festival Theatre in September, although the exact date has not yet been decided.

But auditions for the play are being held on Tuesday, June 5 and Thursday, June 7 at Theatre House in Grange Road, both nights at 7.30pm.

Because Malvern Theatres is staging a professional pantomime this year, MTP is not putting on a Christmas show.

Chris Bassett, of MTP, said: "We are naturally disappointed that Malvern Theatres do not wish us to contribute to their Christmas programme but understand their need to increase revenue by presenting a professional pantomime.

"We wish them well as the quarter-century tradition of amateur pantomime in Malvern comes to an end."

Instead, MTP will be staging that perennial favourite A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum at, appropriately enough, the Forum Theatre in January 2002.

And following the recent success of The Chrysalids, the group is hoping to stage another production involving young people in the Forum for April next year.

For more information, log on to www.malverntheatreplayers.co. uk or www.mtp.org.uk or call 01684 569011.