Mervin Peake's gloriously overripe fantasy novel outgrew its cult reputation in 2000 when the BBC broadcast a Bafta-winning adaptation starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Zoe Wanamaker and John Sessions.

But eight years previously, the physical theatre pioneer David Glass had been brave enough to translate the grotesque characters and gothic architecture of Gormenghast to the stage.

Revived last year to mark the 60th anniversary of the publication of the first book in the trilogy, the award-winning 1992 production is currently touring for what looks to be the final time. And fans of either strange stories or inventive theatre won't want to miss it.

A macabre tale of a dysfunctional family incarcerated in a fantastical bygone age, the first two books in Peake's Gormenghast trilogy are set in the shadowy labyrinths of a huge, gothic castle.

Its rituals are disturbed by the birth of Titus, the 77th Earl of Groan, and the Machiavellian connivings of Steerpike, the lowly kitchen boy who cheats, fights and murders his way to the highest ranks.

The David Glass Ensemble, meanwhile, are internationally renowned for their powerfully visceral approach to theatre, while the artistic director himself is a devoted fan of Peake.

"There's a really good, natural fit between what David does and Peake's books," says Philip Pellew, who plays both the devoted manservant Flay and Barquentine, the crippled Master of Ritual.

"Gormenghast has this very dark, brooding quality, and David is very interested in the dark side, by which I mean that most of us look at the top of the table, whereas David's always looking at what's happening underneath the table.

"As a child, Mervin Peake's father was working as a teacher in the Forbidden City in Beijing, and the early parts of the book have clear references to the Last Emperor. David was very aware of that and felt that certain Eastern theatre styles were particularly appropriate.

"So we have what we jokingly refer to as our stage ninjas. At any one time one of us will be running around in a black suit, moving a prop for another actor.

While Flay is on stage stalking the corridors, everyone else is offstage moving the doors for him. And during the great flood, I'll be in my black suit waving silks about for the water."

Even in John Constable's condensed adaptation, Gormenghast is packed with fascinatingly bizarre characters - there's an owl-obsessed Lord and a cat-obsessed countess, a sadistic chef and a grandiloquent physician, and there's a pair of identical twins called Cora and Clarice who are both paralysed down the left-hand side and spend their lonely days longing for power. But Pellew is delighted to be playing Flay.

"Flay is a gift for an actor, because he has such an intense physicality," he says. "He has an instinctive revulsion for Swelter, which I think is a beautiful invention - the hatred is so basic, it's because he is thin and straight and the chef is large and round.

"One is beaky and angular with creaking leg joints, like a stick insect, the other is all round, fat and enveloping with a high-pitched voice. It's like the difference between a line and a circle.

"They have an epic fight, which is one of the more grotesque moments. I chop several bits of Swelter, which doesn't actually happen in the book - but we feel it's within the gamut of the book's grotesqueness."

  • 7.30pm, £15/£8, 01403 750220
  • For review, see The Argus on Friday