JENNIFER Saunders returns to Bath Theatre Royal in October to star in The Sea, Edward Bond’s masterpiece. It is the first revival in nearly 20 years of the play, which is a blend of wild farce, high comedy, biting social satire and bleak poetic tragedy.

The star, best known as half of French and Saunders and as Edina in Absolutely Fabulous, delighted audiences – and critics – with her performance as Madame Arcati in Bath Theatre Royal’s production of Blithe Spirit, which transferred to the West End. In Bond’s play, she plays Mrs Rafi, one of the greatest comic roles in British theatre, at Bath from Thursday 22nd October to Saturday 7th November.

It is 1907, the height of the Edwardian era. A wild storm shakes a small East Anglian seaside village to its core. Amid the confusion, Mr Hatch, the local draper, wrestles with the possibility that aliens from outer space may be ready to invade, and the village’s self-appointed “First Lady” Mrs. Rafi prepares her ladies for an amateur dramatic performance of Orpheus and Eurydice…

The production is directed by Jonathan Munby, whose career spans classical and contemporary work across the UK and internationally, including major productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Donmar Warehouse, Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe.

Playwright, poet and theatre theorist Edward Bond’s play The Sea, originally premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in May 1973, before being revived at the National Theatre in 1991 and at Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2008 starring Eileen Atkins and David Haig.