BIG Telly is the well-known theatre company which tours Ireland with its own quirky outlook on traditional Irish drama.

This month, Basingstoke audiences have the chance to see them in action as the whole company comes to the Haymarket Theatre to present their impressionistic version of The Playboy of the Western World.

The main character is Christie Mahon, played by leading Irish actor Seamus John Allen, who enthusiastically told me about the play.

"Christie is the stranger, 'the ugly young streeler', who walks into a very small pub in a very small town. He comes in as a coward and a weakling who confesses he has just killed his father. But details of his story grow along with his reputation so eventually the entire village reckons he is a hero... until a man who could be the father suddenly returns, causing huge chaos."

The Playboy of the Western World is written by English writer J M Synge who, in the early 1900s, was persuaded by W B Yeats to write for the new Irish Literary Theatre, which later became the esteemed Abbey Theatre.

Seamus (pictured) said: "He used to watch and listen at a knothole in the woodwork of his boarding house, noting how the people next door spoke and reacted. He then used all their idioms and phraseology.

"Playboy is a satire which could apply to any small community. It has been adapted for audiences worldwide and played in many different versions, including Russian and West Indian. When it was first played in Ireland the audience rioted, one half finding it insulting to their Christian values, the other half loving it.

"This is echoed in the play as the village women riot against the men of the village. Some of the female characters are played by men - ugly men playing ugly women!"

Usually this work is played as a melodrama on a very big set with about 40 in the cast, but director Zoe Seaton has pared it right down to the essence of the play.

The impressionistic look of the pub is almost claustrophobic at times, speeding up the drama and the comedy and giving the bouts of physical action an almost manic quality.

Seamus is now resident in England.

"I was considering making the move when Zoe Seaton was invited to Oxford to direct her production of The Tempest at the Oxford Outdoor Theatre," he said. "I was in the cast and during that time got together with Zoe's assistant, with the result that we get married next year."

He first considered training as a religious teacher, but when he couldn't get on the course, decided to become a teacher of drama. He became involved in every aspect of the technical work - stage manager, lighting director, and soon began an interest in stage fighting.

"I managed to get a student visa to work in New York for the summer and trained in the stage use of broadsword, quarterstaff, dagger and what we call 'found weapons', things lying around. But to do this work in England I must recertify and requalify."

Now he's going back to Northern Ireland to join the rest of the cast for rehearsals, then to Basingstoke for the run of the show.

The Playboy of the Western World opens at The Haymarket, Basingstoke on September 22 and runs until October 9.

Tickets can be purchased from the box office on 0870 770 1088.