A SURREAL spoof will be performed by Weymouth Drama Club next week.

The club will stage The Real Inspector Hound at the Warehouse Theatre in Weymouth by Tom Stoppard from Thursday, February 16 to Saturday, February 18.

The play was first performed in 1968 with such stars as Richard Briers and Ronnie Barker.

In it, two theatre critics watch a ludicrous country house murder mystery – “a who killed thing”, as one of them describes it.

On the surface, it’s a spoof of an Agatha Christie style murder mystery and a dig at the pomposity of theatre critics, but there is more to it.

The audience’s relationship with drama is put to the test as they watch the critics watch the play and then get drawn into it, challenging boundaries between reality and fiction and gently planting a question about how and why theatre works at all.

This is the first of Weymouth Drama Club’s productions for 2023. The next will be Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in April at Weymouth College’s Bay Theatre.

The Real Inspector Hound is at The Warehouse Theatre, Hope St, Weymouth Dt4 8TU.

Tickets (which include a glass of fizz and nibbles before the show) are £12 from www.weymouthdramaclub.com