RICHARD Brinsley Sheridan’s timeless comedy The Rivals was given the One Man Two Guvnors treatment by Richard Bean for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and now the updated version comes to Frome’s Merlin Theatre from 16th to 18th April.

Frome Drama is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, and the play by Bean and co writer Oliver Chris. It is the first of three plays for the 2026 season, and will be followed by Jean Genet’s The Maids and Alan Ayckbourn’s Seasons Greetings.

Jack Absolute Flies Again transfers the action from 1770s Bath to the time of the Battle of Britain, but brings all the favourite characters along for the ride. Set in 1940 at RAF Fontwell, and at Fontwell Manor, requisitioned by the RAF, this version is faster, ruder and funnier than the original. Director Richard Wright suggests that audience members should be 14 or older … and under 120.

Jack Absolute is played by Jed Hamilton-Shaw, with James Moore as Roy Faulkland, Richard Thomas as Bob Acres, Sue Ross as Mrs Malaprop, Tabitha Bradley as Lydia Languish, Katherine Symonds-Moore as Julia Melville, Richard Massey as General Anthony Absolute and Tracey Rawlins as Lucy, with Jon Peckover, Julian Thomas and Michael Starr:

For more details, visit the websites of the Merlin Theatre or Frome Drama’s website.